Kidnapping A Outsiders Fanfic
by purplepheonixowl
Summary: Ponyboy, Johnny, Angela, and Sodapop get kidnapped.Now Darry and the gang must join forces with the Shepard gang and do everything they can to find their missing kids before it's too late. Warning: Ponyboy's first girlfriend. Please Review!
1. Kidnapped

**Disclaimer: If I owned The Outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton. **

**Chapter 1-The Kidnapping**

**Ponyboy's POV.**

My morning began just like it usually does. Darry had to come in twice to get me and Soda up, Soda used all the hot water so I was left with zilch. Then, somehow, Darry forgot to make breakfast, so Soda decided to make the whole gang blue eggs. Honestly, where he gets his ideas from. After playing a game of 'I'm Not Going To Eat That, Yes You Are' (BTW, I won), I was rushed off to school by a huffy Steve.

"Okay kid, I'm going to be leaving during second period, so you're going to have to walk home. Got it?" He asked in an irritated tone, as if I was a pest he was trying to get rid. Asshole. As I assured him I would go directly home, the bell rang. Late again.

For the rest of the day, nothing unusual happened. I went to all of my classes, got yelled at in math for forgetting my book again, and lost my gym pants; again. It wasn't until my walk home with Johnny that anything bad happened. I first noticed the ominous white van parked across the street from the school. It was big and was all alone in the vacant parking lot. I saw the same van maybe ten minutes later, on the side of the street connecting to mine. It didn't appear to be occupied but it kinda weirded me out. _Keep it together Pony_ I thought to myself. _You're just being paranoid _I shook it off and continued on my walk beside Johnny, now keeping my eyes peeled. I was almost home; my street was in sight, when I heard a car behind me. A big car, by the sounds of it. I turned slightly, almost knowing what it was, and sure enough, saw the big white van behind us, following about six feet behind. I looked over at Johnny and realized he hadn't heard the van yet.

"Johnny, don't look right now, but were being followed by a large white van. I swear I've seen this van twice on our walk home." He kept his cool as if he hadn't heard me and asked in a low whisper.

"Do you thing it belongs to Soc?" I thought about it.

"Nah, its unmarked and kinda old looking. A Soc wouldn't go for anything that plain. I think they might want something with us."

As if on cue, the van sped up and stopped in front of us. The guys who got out didn't appear to be either Soc or Greaser. The largest one grinned at us.

"Hey boys. Wanna go for a ride?" I don't think I've ever wished for the gang more than right now Slowly backing up I shook my head.

"N-no sir, we were just headed home." Johnny nodded as if to verify my statement. The big dude just grinned.

"I'm afraid that there has been a change in plan boys. GET EM" The last part he yelled to his crew, who came at us. One of them grabbed me and held a cloth to my face. It smelled like sweet hairspray. I felt myself grow tired all of the sudden. _'No Dammit. Fight back. FIGHT BACK!'_ I thought frantically. But it was no use. I felt myself slip away from consciousness.

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**I'm sorry for such a short chapter, but I swear that the rest will be longer. For any questions, concerns or comments, please click the review button below.**


	2. Kidnapped 2

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter Two-Kidnapped 2**

**Sodapop POV.**

I was just setting in on my plate of chocolate cake when Steve burst in through the door.

"Hey Steve, nice of you to burst in. How's it going?" He just grunted in response and went for the refrigerator. He rifled through it for a while before coming out with a beer.

"Where did you get that from? Darry said absolutely no beer in the refrigerator. If the State saw that they would take me and Pony away." He gave me a look.

"What Darry and the State don't know won't kill them." I let it drop and changed the subject. "Where's Pony and Johnny. Didn't you give them a ride?" This caught his attention.

"Ponyboy and Johnny aren't home yet?" I shook my head, confused.

"Dammit, I told Pony to walk home. He assured me he would. I thought he would've told Johnny. I had to leave school early today." Had to or wanted to, I thought to myself

"Well then where the hell is he? You know Darry's is gonna blow his top if Ponyboy isn't home before he is. He must still be at the school. Come on." I said as I grabbed my coat of the counter and went to the living room to look for my shoes. How so like Ponyboy to forget that he was supposed to walk home.

As Steve was driving back to the school, we passed a white van. It looked kinda out of place here; it seemed too clean and well put together to belong to a greaser, yet not gaudy enough to belong to the Socs. I let it drop, shouldn't worry about nothing, especially when I had a little brother MIA. I could tell as soon as Steve pulled into the parking lot that Ponyboy wasn't there. There were a few people scattered around, but they were all Socs, definitely not Ponyboy _or _Johnny. A few glared at us as we passed.

"Do you think he's practicing for track?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I would've remembered if it was a track practice day. Steve shrugged and drove around the school to the track field. It was empty. I was beginning to worry. Steve piped in.

"Maybe they're walking home and we just missed them." I relied on Steve's word and nodded in agreement. I kept my eyes peeled the entire way home, but saw nothing. When we returned to the house I saw Darry's truck in the driveway. Great, now I had to explain to Darry that I had no idea where our youngest brother or his best friend was.

As soon as I stepped into the front door, I sensed something was wrong. It was completely quiet. My paranoia increased when I saw Darry, Dally, and Two-bit just sitting in the living room with their heads down. Both Dally and Two-bit looked up with relief as me and Steve came in. Darry however stood to his feet, irritation drawn on his face.

"Where the hell have you been, Sodapop?" Where was this anger coming from? He usually saved it for Ponyboy.

"What're you all about Darry? I was out looking for Pony and Johnny." I retorted. Darry's face suddenly changed to fright.

"Where's Pony and Johnny?" God, didn't I just say I didn't know?

"I don't know Darry, that's why we were out looking for them." I didn't mean to add so much sarcasm to the statement but I couldn't help it. Instead of getting angry at my sarcasm, Darry's face just turned whiter. It was starting to freak me out.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Dally looked at Two-bit before responding with a question. "Haven't you guys heard the news?" I shook my head.

"There have been kidnappings all over the town. At least five now. The news channel just issued a warning to keep all kids indoors, until the fuzz can catch the guy." Darry interrupted to add his own bit.

"So I come home to tell you and Pony to stay home, only to find an empty house." Darry sounded annoyed again. "Now have either of you seen Pony or Johnny?"

"Wasn't Steve supposed to give Pony and Johnny a ride home from school?" Two-bit asked. Now it was Steve's turn to be annoyed.

"Yeah, but I ditched school a little after lunch. I told the kid to walk home with Johnny. Not my fault he didn't listen." My head was begging to swim. There was a kidnapper loose in the town and both my kid brother and friend were nowhere to be found. This couldn't be happening, not now. I felt like I would throw up, but instead I turned around and ran back out the door before any of the gang could catch me. As I ran down the street, I could hear the gang yelling for to come back.

I had to find Pony. Johnny too. There was no way they were gone. They were probably at the lot. Or the park. Ponyboy just forgot to come home or something and was hanging out with Johnny. Yeah, that was it. I tried to convince myself over and over again. Maybe they were here or there. But each time I went by one of their favorite hangout spots and it was empty, my heart sank a little. I was on the road back to the school, still searching in vain. I was about to turn around when I came upon a scratched up blue piece of cloth. It looked familiar, so I picked it up, only to drop it again out of horror. It was Ponyboy's blue backpack. It looked like it had gone through the mill, all scratched up and frayed. Pony must have dropped it. Doing what? I could only pray it wasn't what I was thinking. I turned around and for some reason, went back to the park. I don't why I ended up there; maybe I felt Pony was there. When I got there, instead of Pony, I saw a big white van. In fact it looked a lot like the one I had seen while looking for Pony. Was it following me? My stomach turned ice cold as three buff guys got out. Nowhere near as big as Darry, but they were still pretty big. I definatly couldn't take them. They stood about five feet away from me, just staring at me with sneering grins. I had a really bad feeling about this.

"Hey fellas. Anything I could help you with?" I asked. God, please say no. What I could only guess to be the leader of the big guys turned his sneer into a creepy smile.

"Boys, why don't we show this young man just what he could help us with." The other two guys cracked their knuckles in a threatening way before advancing me. Oh crap. Why did I leave the house? I should've just stayed there instead of running out to find Pony and Johnny. One of the last thoughts I had before the guys were on me was a silent plea for the gang to come and help. One of the guys put a cloth over my face and I felt myself slip away from conscience. Just before I did though, I could've sworn I heard an oddly familiar female voice in the distance.

**Angela's POV.**

Damn Curly and Tim. They had ended up chasing away another boyfriend. Every time I got a boy, by brothers never let me keep him. They said I was too 'young' to be dating. I was sixteen, dammit! I stalked off towards the direction of the park, hoping to vent some anger before I had to return home to my overbearing brothers. As I got closer to the park I saw a large white van. Movement caught my eye. Three tuff guys were holding somebody down. _Looks like somebody's getting jumped._ Careful not to attract attention to myself I crept closer, only to realize that the guy getting jumped was Sodapop Curtis. Without thinking I ran over to help.

"Hey! Hey, Leave him alone" To tell you the truth, I don't know why I tried to save the middle Curtis brother. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's cute. But I really had a crush on the youngest one. Ponyboy. The big dudes looked up. Sodapop seemed to have passed out.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Does the little girl want to save her boyfriend?" He leered at me. One of the others spoke up. "Hey, Ralph, can't we just leave her alone? We already have too many." The man stopped leering to glare at the speaking man. "There is no such thing as too many. Now shut up and get her." I froze up inside. Too many what? I knew if I didn't start running, they were going to get me. I whirled around and ran back towards home. I was fast. But they were faster. The one called Ralph grabbed me and slammed me to the ground. I tried to wiggle away but he was too strong and heavy. The other two come up and one put a wet cloth over my nose and mouth. I breathed in the sickly sweet smell. Ugh! I started to get drowsy all of the sudden. Oh my god. Were they drugging me? Slowly I stopped fighting, until I finally slipped into sleep.

**Okay, so like I promised before, this chapter is considerably longer. I'm sorry I kinda squished together how Angela and Soda got kidnapped, but I decided this would be simpler. Please, please, please, tell me how you liked this chapter. For any questions, concerns, or comments, please click the button below.**


	3. Missing

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 3-Missing Kids**

**Darry POV.**

Sodapop had run out of the house nearly an hour ago. About twenty minutes after that I called the cops to report three missing children. I know it seemed a bit quick to label them missing, but with this kidnapper taking kids off the street, I'd rather be safe than sorry. After I made the heartbreaking call, the gang and I set off to find Soda, Pony, and Johnny. Dally had been a bit reluctant to search for Soda and Pony, but then I reminded him that Johnny was missing too; he was the first out the door. We searched everywhere. The lot stood empty, as did the park. We even ran into the police a few times, they were looking for kids too, so we gave them the descriptions of the missing gang members and continued to search. When it finally became too dark to see anything, we all returned to the house. We all were tired, hungry, and desperate to find the boys. No more than ten minutes after we had returned to the house, who should barge in but Tim Shepard and his brother Curly.

"Hey, have any of you seen Angela?" Well hello to you too. Dally looked up, annoyed.

"No Shepard, but I'm sure if you checked her boyfriends pants, you'll find her. Now if you'll excuse us, we have problems to attend to." Curly scowled at the ground when Dally said the bit against his sister, but stayed shut up.

"Look, Dally. We chased her boyfriend out of the house this afternoon and she ran off."

"And?"

"And, we haven't seen her since."

Steve, overhearing this, walked in the room.

"What's wrong with Angela?" Shepard turned to Steve.

"She's gone. Have you seen her?"

"No, but three of our gang is missing. Ponyboy, Johnny, and now Sodapop." Two-bit cut in.

"Yeah, we've looking for hours, but nobody's seen Ponyboy and Johnny since school let out, and well, ain't anyone seen Soda since he ran out about an hour ago." Curly now looked up from the floor.

"Ponyboy's missing too." I knew that Ponyboy and Curly Shepard had been good friends when they were little, so it didn't surprise me that was the only part he had heard.

"Yeah, we're kinda worried, what with that kidnapper wreaking havoc." After that everybody just kinda shut up and I knew they were thinking about how likely it was that our missing kids had been kidnapped. Steve and Dally crashed at my house and Two-bit made his way over to his later that night. I went to my room and sat down on the bed. I couldn't believe this. Both of my baby brothers were gone now. The only comforting thought I had right then was that they were most likely together. God willing that they were, I knew Soda wouldn't let anything happen to Ponyboy or Johnny. I dosed off, praying that this whole thing would blow over smoothly and my family would return safe and sound.

Dally's POV.

I couldn't believe it. The pet and the kid got kidnapped together. And know Soda was missing along with Angela Shepard. I didn't personally care for Angela Shepard, but since our gang is buddy-buddy with the Shepard gang, it was only fair to help find Angela too. I lay down on the Curtis's couch. I just hoped that this damn thing would be over with. With that final thought I fell asleep.

**A/N: I am currently making corrections to this story and adding a few more chapters. Hope to continue on with the others soon.**


	4. Wake Up

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 4-Awakening **

**Soda POV.**

When I woke up, I had a pounding headache. It felt like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to my head. I sat up a little and looked around. I was in a dark room that just enough light to make my surroundings. The room looked perfectly square and all around the room were several pieces of run-down furniture and big black lumps all over the floor. Where _was _I? I tried to remember. Nothing. Maybe I had gotten drunk or something. I tried to sit up more but someone was on my legs. I looked down and saw a familiar black head.

"Angela, is that you? Hey Angela, wake up. ANGELA!" The last part made my headache worse but at least it woke up Angela. She opened her eyes groggily and sat up.

"What the hell-" She caught sight of me. "Sodapop, is that you?" I nodded and she rolled of my legs.

"Where are we? Did I get drunk again?"

She kept asking questions that I couldn't possibly answer while I stood and stretched my legs. Now that I was standing, I got a better look at the room and saw the floor littered with lumps were actually kids. The kids were lying all over the floor as I had, and looked to be asleep. All f them looked you, maybe ten to eighteen. But why was here with them? Two memories suddenly hit. The first was that big dude that was built like a trucker. He had held that wet cloth to my face. The other was of Dally telling me that there had been a whole bunch of kidnappings. Glory, had I been kidnapped? Dally had told me there were about ten kids missing from Tulsa. I looked at the floor again. There were a lot more than ten kids lying there. Suddenly kids began to stir. The whole room filled with groaning. About four minutes of groaning, the other kids began to ask questions.

"Where am I?"

"Who are you?"

"Where's Mommy?"

"Where_am_I_?_"

"What happened?"

"Did I get drunk last night?"

"WOULD _SOMBODY_ PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I AM?"

Eventually, after what felt like an hour, the chatter stopped and started again as people regain their memories. Some of the kids started crying, some yelling for help, or others simply just standing their staring off into space. The room held too much noise. It felt like my head would explode. Something had to be done about this. I looked around and spotting an old looking chair, I ran over and grabbed it. Standing on top of it I looked over the crowd. No telling how many kids were there, too many moving around. I started to speak.

"Hey, guys. Could I please have your attention?" No one even looked my way. They were too caught up in the current events. I tried again, louder this time

"Hey guys. If you could just listen real quickly." Still too caught up in themselves, the kids ignored me. Angela stood at my side and was watching with a grin. I looked down at her and shrugged.

"You're doing it all wrong Soda, you can't _ask_ them to pay attention to you. You gotta _demand_ it." I frowned at her.

"Fine, if you're so smart _you_ do it." She grinned again gladly. I got down off my chair and let her on. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted.

"HEY ASSHOLES, SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR A MINUET. THAT MEANS _NOW_."

The chatter stopped instantly. Everybody was stunned that a strange girl had just called them assholes and told them to shut up. Angela looked down at me with a smug grin. Whatever. She was only able to do that because she was so used to bossing people around. I just rolled my eyes. Angela grinned again and began to speak

"Good. Now, it's obvious that at some point we were all taken from our homes at some point," This started another round of crying and complaining.

"HEY!" Angela yelled again and everyone shut up.

"Now, it's obvious that we don't know where we are, so what I need you to do is tell me and Sodapop here-" She said pointing to me. Suddenly though, a way too familiar voice rang out from the crowd.

"Sodapop?"

**A/N: Ooooh, Cliffhanger. This is my first attempt at this, so please forgive me if it's bad.**


	5. No Help

**Ponyboy's POV**.

When I came to, I immediately wished I hadn't. I had a huge headache, the cause of it I couldn't remember, and it sounded as a million people were groaning at one time. I sat up and saw that next to me, Johnny was sitting up too. He saw me and gave me a questioning look, to which I replied with a shrug. I couldn't even remember what had happened, let alone where we were. I looked around and saw a whole bunch of people sitting or in the process of standing and they all seemed to be groaning. Rather loudly. Upon further inspection, I realized that the people were kids, like me. What the hell had happened and why was I in a semi-dark room full of kids? I desperately tried to remember what had happened. It hit me then. Me and Johnny had been walking home from school and the big white van….. Oh no! Had I been kidnapped? I looked back over at Johnny; he still looked confused by his surroundings. This was going to kill Soda and Darry. I looked around the dimly lit room again and saw some idiot standing on a chair trying to get everyone's attention. Yeah, like that's going to help. Johnny suddenly gasped and looked at me.

"Oh God, Pony, the van-, that cloth-, were we kidnapped?" I was about to answer him when a loud females voice echoed through the room.

"HEY ASSHOLES, I NEED YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME FOR A MINUET. THAT MEANS _NOW_."

The voice sounded really familiar. It had a great affect though. All the kids shut up at once. I turned around and saw that the idiot had been replaced with a familiar looking girl. You know, she looked a little like Angela, Tim and Curly's brother. She started to talk about disappearing or whatever and the people began to groan and cry again. She shut them up again was speaking again.

"Now, it's obvious that we don't know where we are, so what I need you to do is tell me and Sodapop here-" My eyes opened in astonishment and I heard Johnny gasp beside me. She pointed a person that I couldn't see next to her and was about to continue when I interrupted.

"Sodapop?

**Darry's POV**

When I woke up this morning, I prayed that the events that had just happened were all a dream; I couldn't bear the thought of Pony and Soda missing. Johnny either. I got up from my bed and almost ran to my brother's shared room and threw open the door. I was met with an empty room. It felt cold, as if all life had been sucked from it. I stood there for a few minutes, just staring at their rooms before noise from the living room pulled me from my thoughts. It sounded like someone was fighting. I sighed and made my way to the living room. Surprisingly enough, no one was fighting. It was Dally; he appeared to be having a meltdown, as he was beating his fist against the wall.

"Hey Dally, buddy, you're gonna put a hole in my wall" I said gently.

He grunted.

"Is it about Johnny?"

Grunt.

"We're trying to find them you know."

Grunt.

I sighed, giving up. I walked maybe four feet before the door burst open. It was Tim.

"Why must everyone try to break my door down? It does open like a normal door."

"Whatever Curtis, have had any word yet on your brothers or Cade?"

"No, have you?" I asked off-handily.

"One of the Brumly boys has a lead." This caught mine and Dally's attention.

"Well, what is it? Out with it man." Dally demanded.

"It appears that right before a kidnapping takes place, some white van is seen. He told me that yesterday it was seen hanging around the school. That might've been when Pony and Johnny was kidnapped ya know." A white van. I hadn't seen one around town.

"Tim, that doesn't help. That could've been any white van."

"Look Curtis, I don't care if it was, anyone who kidnaps my baby sister is gonna get it. I got my boys looking out for any white vans, your boys in?" I had forgotten Angela Shepard had been kidnapped too. I really didn't know what to answer. On one hand, it was great that Tim thought he had a lead, but I couldn't have the gang just sitting there waiting for a random white van to jump. Luckily I was saved from having to answer when the telephone rang. I ran to answer it. It could be the cops saying they found Soda and Pony.

"Hello, Curtis Residence, Darrel speaking"

"Hello Mr. Curtis. It's Miss Taylor with the Social Services."

Damn, the Social Services. This couldn't be good.

"Mr. Curtis, I'm calling about the missing child report filed on Ponyboy Curtis and Sodapop Curtis."

"Yes, they've been in the local kidnappings."

"Yes, well we are calling to ask if they have been found."

"No, not yet."

"Well, please call when they are found so we may continue our visits to your house."

"Wait, aren't you going to help find them?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you're always up my ass if the house isn't perfectly cleaned for them, yet you aren't going to help me find them?"

"Two missing boys is not our problem Mr. Curtis."

"What?"

"You're their legal guardian; it is up to you and the police to find them. I have the more important things to do. Now if you would please call us when Ponyboy and Sodapop are located we would appreciate it."

"Yeah, whatever" I slammed the phone down. What a load of crap! God forbid we have a speck of dirt anywhere on our monthly visits, yet the two youngest go missing and they bail? I couldn't believe this! I stormed back into the living room to see Tim Shepard gone, but Steve and Two-bit had showed up.

"Hey Darry, who was that? You sounded pissed." Steve asked.

"It was the damned Social Services, calling to tell me we have zero help from them."

I know I had only been awake for about half an hour, but I was suddenly tired again so I trudged back to my room, pausing a moment to look into Soda and Pony's empty room. God, I wanted my brothers back.

**Thank you to those who have reviewed. I am trying to update as many chapters as I can before the end of summer, so you may want to watch out for new chapters. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	6. Kidnapper Revealed

**Chapter 6-Kidnapper**

**Ponyboy POV.**

"Sodapop?"

He looked around, startled at the sound of his name, and his eyes made stopped on mine. His expression turned to shock. I'm sure my own face showed evident shock since all my brain could say was SODAPOP!

"P-Ponyboy. What are you doing here?" He jumped off the chair and the crowd of kids made a pathway between me and him. He stopped right in front of me.

"What the heck are you doing here? You didn't get kidnapped too, did you?" I honestly didn't mean to be mean but, well, he was asking a way too obvious question.

"No Soda, I decided to drop in and say hi." (**Not my best zing, it was all I could think of, sorry.**) He gave me a funny look while the crowd of kids snickered. He grinned.

"Ah, same ol' smart ass Ponyboy. They didn't hurt you to bad, did they?" I shook my head. He then seemed to notice that Johnny was standing next to me.

"Hey kid, didn't see ya there! What happened to you two? Me and the gang tried looking for you, but you were gone." I sighed.

"Me and Johnny were followed by a white van while walking home from school. We had just come into view of our street when they stopped us. Some big dudes."

"The white van for you too?" He was about to say something else when a black haired girl came through the crowd towards us.

"Hey Soda, these kids ain't gonna keep quiet for long. You and me need to get back up there before they completely lose control." The girl looked really familiar, but I couldn't quite place my finger on who it was. Soda and her were about to go back up to the front when it hit me.

"Angela! Angela Shepard. Your Tim and Curly's sister, right?" The girl looked back at me with a sly grin.

"Aww, don't play dumb Pony. You knew it was me." Then she winked at me. Huh? Was I missing something here or did Angela Shepard just wink at _me_? I shook it off and followed Soda back to the podium/chair. Angela got up and yelled at everyone to shut up. It must have been her who had told us to shut up earlier. Everyone held their attention to Soda and Angela again.

"Okay, sorry about the interruption, but as I was saying, I'm going to need all of you to tell us what you remember right before you woke up here." Instead of a one by one answer, they all began to talk at once. My throbbing headache, which had just begun to recede, came back with a force unlike any other. I reached up for my nose and began rubbing, hoping to get rid of it. Angela tried to get everyone's attention, but now not even she could be heard over the shouting kids. Suddenly, there was a loud boom, as if a gun had been fired, and everyone shut up instantly. I looked around, just as everyone else was, for the source of the noise. The crowd parted as a large (fat) man was standing there with about four large guys, all them I remembered from my little kidnapping adventure. The fat man was holding a smoking gun in the air and looking around the room with a satisfied grin. He slowly began to approach the front of the room, looking at the crowds of kids on either side of him. When he got up to the front he merely looked at Angela, who was still standing on the chair. I guess she got the unspoken demand, because she got off the chair and stepped back towards me, Johnny, and Soda. Instead of taking Angels place, the mysterious man shoved the chair away and began to speak in a booming voice.

"Hello children, and welcome to my humble abode." Humble my ass.

"Paul tells me you new ones are all from Oklahoma correct?" He didn't wait for response. "Yes, Oklahoma seems to offer us a lot. Young, dumb small town hicks with nothing to do. You'll be a perfect work force on my field." Did he just call us all dumb? I was about to say something nasty to him when a new thought struck my head, one spoken by another kid near me.

"_What_ fields? And who are you?" The fat man leered at the crowd.

"Why, haven't I introduced myself? How rude of me. I go by the name Roger Moorland. I am the proud owner of this country's biggest farm." I spoke up now.

"That's nice, but what do _we _have to do with that?" Moorland gave me such a look, I wish I hadn't spoken.

"The reason you are all here is because you special children have been chosen to come and work on my drug field." Again, I stupidly opened my mouth.

"What do you mean _chosen_?" Another mean glare. Man I've gotta stop opening my mouth. He spoke to the crowd again.

"As I'm sure you noticed, my boys here dragged each and every one of you off the street, just to come work for me, here." He finished with a big hand gesture, as if he thought this was a great detail. The room remained silent, until one unknown kid spoke up.

"How long do we have to work for you?" I whipped my head around to find the asker of that question. How long did we have for him? How about never. The man chuckled.

"Until your bail is posted m'boy." Bail? Like jail?

Sodapop asked the next question.

"What's that supposed to mean. Like we're in jail?" The man looked down and smiled at Sodapop with crooked teeth.

"Yes, young man. Just like jail."

Moorland got off the chair and walked back through the crowd of now stunned kids.

"By the way, a certain number of you will begin work tomorrow, so I'd get a good night's sleep." He leered at us all before he left through a door none of us had seen before.

I had been kidnapped so I could work on some farm? Everyone here, even the young ones would be forced child labor? What sick freak does this? Kids now sank to the floor in silence, thinking about what the evil creep had said.

**Okay, not the best plot line, but I like it. Thank you to all those who have sent me nice comments, I really appreciate your enthusiasm to more chapters. Chapter 7 is coming up soon! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. First Day of Work

**Chapter 7-First Day of Work**

**Ponyboy POV.**

After Moorland left, all the kids just kinda sat and stayed on the floor. They were all too shocked or afraid about what was to happen next. Me, Soda, Johnny, and Angela sat next to each other leaning against a dark wall. You could of heard a pin drop in this room. As I sat there, I dreamed of returning home to Darry and Two-bit and Dally. Even Steve. I don't think I've ever missed them more. Then again I'd never been kidnapped. I looked over at Soda and saw by his expression that he was thinking the same thing. Getting sleepy, I crawled over to Soda and leaned against his arm. It was a good source of warmth in this cold dark room and I was afraid the nightmares would return. He wrapped his arms around me and we both fell asleep into a pitiful slumber.

I was having a nice dream about Mom and Dad, back when they were alive, when a loud bang suddenly woke me up. I groaned and rolled of Soda. The bang sounded again, this time waking up more kids. The room filled with soft groans as kids began to stir. I then noticed that the door to the room was open and two huge looking men were looking at us all with grim expressions. The bigger one raised a hand holding a gun and pulled the trigger once again. I winced as the gun went off, echoing around the room. Now everybody was pretty much up. Soda was cursing up a storm next to me and Johnny was looking around like a scared mouse. The smaller of the two men come forward and began to walk through the room, grabbing kids, mostly boys, and pushing them toward the door. The man walked up to me, Soda and Johnny, grabbing us from the floor and roughly pushing us toward the door. Angela started to protest, and I turned just in time to see the man smack her.

Angela looked shocked and the man continued to walk around. I wanted go and make sure she was okay, I mean, I was sure she had never been hit like that before, but the burly man the door was pulling us through the door. The hallway was lit more brightly than the room, so naturally, I began to develop a headache as soon as I was I in it. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I saw there were more men blocking both sides of the hallway, making sure no one escaped. We were roughly shoved into a line and told to stay still. The guy who told us to do so was holding a gun, so naturally I just did as I was told to do. No need to get shot because I was rebelling. Eventually the smallest burly guy came back out after a few more boys came out and we were told to march. As I marched down the thin hallway still half dragging a half asleep Sodapop, I wondered if we were ever going to survive this. I mean, I know Moorland said that we were his workers, or whatever, but I also knew that innocent people got shot up every day by these kinds of kidnappers. Would he really spare us children? The line of boys came to halt right in front of a brightly lit doorway. Goon #1 turned to us and told us to stay in line until told what to do and he walked away. Surprisingly enough nobody tried to make a run for it. After what seemed like hours standing there a different short burly man came into the hallway.

"Welcome children. I am Carl and I will be your supervisor while you're in the field. Now just to clear something up right away, it is no use trying to run. This field is surrounded by barbed wire, several armed men and a lot more unpleasant surprises. Now we usually have all the newbie's learning how to harvest the first day, but since our last recruits 'left', you boys are going to be harvesting the 'plants' right away." The way he said left and plants kind of scared me. A voice at the head of the line spoke up.

"But none of us have ever harvested anything before. How are we supposed to harvest this 'plant'?" Rick glared at the speaker.

"I thought you were all from Oklahoma. Isn't all of Oklahoma just farms? Just pick the leaves f the stocks and put them in the bag. Now, you are not to speak to each other, other people you run into, or any of us. Anyone talking will regret it any questions?"

"What if we have to go to the bathroom?" Rick didn't answer, just grinned and turned around.

**Okay, I know that you wanted Ponyboy's love life to start so I'm going to start it next chapter after a quick view of what's happening to Darry and Co. I've enjoyed all of your reviews. Thank You! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. Love

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 8-Love**

**Darry POV.**

It had been four days since my brother's disappearance and there were no leads for any of the missing children. All that the cops had was that many people talked about the 'white van', only problem was that nobody had seen it lately, in fact nobody had been kidnapped lately either. They told us on the news how many kids were kidnapped. 25. 25 innocent kids, ranging from 7 to 19, were kidnapped. Both of my brothers were part of those statistics and I couldn't stand it. I was willing to do anything to find them. Anything.

**Ponyboy POV.**

The first two days of 'work' dragged on when on the third day the shmuck named Moorland allowed us a free day saying it was Sunday and we were allowed a rest day for Sabbath. Great. We get illegally kidnapped by a drug lord who makes us illegally work on an illegal drug farm and he turns out religious. Wonderful. I was sitting there trying to enjoy my Sunday when Angela appeared right in front of me.

"Hey Ponyboy. Mind if I join you?" She sat down next to me before I could answer. The tone in her voice surprised me. It sounded almost….sultry. She suddenly began to talk.

"So I heard all the boys had to work in the fields. Is that true? I bet it makes you really strong." The last part was spoken in a weird seductive voice. An odd sensation rolled through me. Was she trying to flirt with me? No, she was Angela Shepard. She went out with a ton of guys. Me, I hadn't even had my first girlfriend. She suddenly grabbed my arm and ran her hand up and down it.

"Wow, you already have nice muscles. I bet you get some good rep as a greaser with these."

"I…well; um…I mean I…..see." I spluttered. I was at a complete loss of words. Angela Shepard was hitting on me. ME! I looked around for an escape route and my eyes landed on Sodapop who was looking at me sheer surprise. So he was surprised that a hot girl like Angela was flirting with me, huh? I didn't know why this angered me. I guess I was tired of the guys getting on my case about getting a girl. Well I'll show him! I returned my attention to Angela.

"Yeah, well, you gotta have tuff muscles to be a greaser. Didn't you know that?" She giggled and scooted closer to me. Damn she was coming on strong.

"So what do you girls have to do all day?"

"We have to saran wrap these nasty plants they bring in. It smells terrible." She scooted even closer. Two could play at this game. I wrapped an arm around her.

"Aw, you must be tired from all that work." Since there was no more room for her to scoot to, she sat on my lap. She was fast.

"You know Ponyboy, my last boyfriend left me so I'm single." I snuck a look back over at Soda and he was looking at me in confusion and surprise. Good. I turned back to Angela and saw her looking at me like she was waiting for something. If I was going to do this, I was going to do this to the finish. "Yeah, well I ain't got a girlfriend right now, so I guess I'm single too." This seemed to be what she wanted to hear. Without even a warning, she leaned forward and kissed me right on the lips. All I could think of was: _OH MY GOD ANGELA SHEPARD IS KISSING ME!_ She kissed me for about ten seconds and then leaned back and giggled.

"I'll see you later Ponyboy." She got off my lap and skipped over to a gaggle of girls on the opposite side of the room. I recovered from my shock and saw that all the boys that were in a three foot radius were gawking at me. All their expressions said the same thing: _YOU KISSED ANGELA SHEPARD! _I found Soda among the gawkers and motioned for him to come over. His expression cleared and he looked amused as he got up and walked over to me through the still gawking boys. He reached me and sat down. Johnny came out of nowhere and sat on my other side. I looked at the gawkers.

"Well what you looking at? Ain't ya'll ever seen two people kiss?" This caught their attention and they all looked away, an embarrassed blush came to their cheeks. We sat in silence for about a minuet before Soda broke the ice.

"So you and Angela huh?" He looked amused again.

"Yep."

"You know she's trouble right?"

"Yep."

"So are two dating now?"

"I guess." I thought about it. Something about becoming boyfriend and girlfriend while you were kidnapped kids seemed…..odd. Johnny spoke for the first time in a day and a half.

"Are you doing this because your afraid you'll never get one since we might d-, well you might never have a chance to get a girlfriend?" I heard his unspoken word: we might die here. I shook my head.

'No man, she just really came onto to me and I just said yeah." I wasn't about to tell them that the surprised look on Soda's face had goaded me into flirting back. They'd probably laugh at me. Soda shook his head, but stayed silent and Johnny just kinda disappeared into the crowd. I looked over at the crowd of girls in the corner and caught Angela's eye. She winked and gave me a smile before turning back to the giggling girls. Something deep inside me said that I had made a terrible mistake going with Angela. I just shut it up and leaned against the wall, soon falling asleep.

**I hope this is good enough for the beginning of Ponyboy's romance life. Just to warn you, it's going to be a short romance life. My next chapter will be completely about Darry and Co. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	9. A Clue

**Chapter 9-A Clue**

**Two-Bit POV.**

I had just got in from a long night/morning and was about to fall asleep when the phone rang. I waited for my mama to pick it up, but she ignored it. Groaning, I rolled out of bed and made my way to the hallway phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Two-bit, it's Darry. Listen, I need you to get down here right away. I got a lead." I sighed.

"Darry, last time you 'had a lead' it turned out that all you knew was that a white van had taken them." I heard Darry sigh.

"I know, but this is way more important. The police just dropped it off. You're going to want to see this." His tone was urgent so I gave up and agreed to come over. Ever since Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Johnny had been kidnapped, the gang had been looking everywhere for leads. I grabbed my keys and kissed mama goodbye.

"Keith, I don't want you getting any drunker, you here? I don't need you ending up in jail." I grinned.

"Aw mama, you know I'm too smart for that. I'll be back soon.' She shook her head but let me go. I rushed over to the Curtis house, never getting caught by the cops once. When I entered the house I saw that Darry had gone ahead and called everyone. Even Dally. He looked pissed to be there though. I sat down on the floor, in front of the couch.

"Hey Darry," I said to the man pacing in the living room.

"What is it you wanted to show us? Darry stopped and walked over to the fire place mantle. He produced a large envelope. Taking some papers out he handed them to me, the closest. I cautiously took them and looked.

EVIDENCE REPORT 

FOUND: Blue Backpack

OWNER: Ponyboy Michael Curtis

LOCATION: 5th Street

REASON FOR CONFISCATION: While police were searching for clues on the whereabouts of the 9 missing children, Police stumbled upon a blue backpack later to be identified as the property of Ponyboy Michael Curtis, one of the 9 missing children. The backpack was found on 5th street, just 25 feet from Ponyboy's home. Contents of backpack had no suspicious qualities but a chemical test has been requested on backpack. Torn shoulder strap and frayed material leads police to believe that there was struggle.

CHEMICAL TEST RESULTS: Traces of Trichloromethane, more commonly known as Chloroform, were found on backpack. Police believe Ponyboy Curtis was drugged before kidnapped.

I finished reading it and looked around. I saw the looks on everyone's face and realized they had already read it.

"They think Pony was drugged?" I asked.

"It makes sense," Steve answered, "how else they supposed to kidnap them without attracting attention."

"They have found a couple of other things that the kidnapped children were wearing and that show a sign of struggle and some traces of Chloroform." Darry added.

"So all the kids were drugged?" Darry nodded and added something else.

"The Cops say that the white van we've been looking out for has been hanging out here for a while, according to friends and family f the kidnapped. The cops think the van might of scoped the place out, you know, to see who they would nab. They think it's been here for at least ten days prior to the kidnappings."

"Wait," I said, ignoring the question, "It's been here for ten days and no one called it in?"Darry scoffed at my question.

"What are people supposed to call it in for? Anyway, I need you guys to think if you have seen a white van round. Near here or anything." There was a beat of silence before Steve exclaimed

"Wait, I think I remember seeing a white van when Ponyboy was doing that scenery thing for art!"

"What scenery thing?" Darry asked.

"He was supposed to capture the 'essence of America' so me and Soda took him to some hill over the town and let him at it. He was more interested in the neighborhood though. Said that it represented America more than some dumb hills."

"Well did you see a white van?"

"I don't know, but Pony might of got something in his pictures." Darry grabbed Steve.

"Do you know where those pictures are?"

"They should still be in the developing shop. Me and Soda were supposed to pick them up the day they were kidnapped." Darry let go of Steve and ran to the kitchen before coming back with a pair of keys.

"Alright, let's go. We gotta get those pictures now; see if Ponyboy captured that van on film."

"What, Darry. It wasn't a 24-hour store. It's probably not open."

"Well we'll just have to see now won't we?" He growled.

It turned out the store wasn't opened yet. So we were all forced to sit in the truck with a very agitated Darry. Even I couldn't sit still. Finally we saw some man come up to the store with a teenager and unlock the door. We made Darry wait ten minutes so they could open, something that didn't sit too well with him. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he flung open his door. We rushed after him, to avoid any problems, and entered the shop. The teenager was sitting behind the counter, smacking her gum. Steve got to the counter first.

"Hey, we need the photos for Ponyboy Curtis. Right now please." The teenage girl behind the front desk looked at us all before sighing and going into the back. It felt like forever before she came back with an envelope labeled PONYBOY CURTIS.

"That will be $7.99 please." Darry shoved the money across the counter and grabbed the envelope. We didn't even leave the shop, we ripped open the envelope right there at the counter. We all made grabs for the photos and each came back with a handful as we searched through them for this white van. I had to admit, Ponyboy takes a nice picture. I was so busy looking at a pretty shot of a sunset over an empty house on our street I almost missed it. At the corner of the picture, I could just see the end of a big white thing. It was blurred slightly, but I could make it out.

"Darry, Darry, I got something." I shouted. He snatched the photo from me. I looked at the next photo in my hands. This one was of the house next to the sunset one, and right smack in front of it was an unmarked, unmanned white van. I looked at it for a second before handing this one to Darry as well. The others stopped their searching to look at it.

"_That's_ the van? Looks kinda big to not be noticeable." Steve said. Darry grabbed all the photos and ran out of the store. He'd been doing all a whole lot of running this morning. Once we were all in the truck, he spoke.

"We gotta take these to the police station. They're evidence now. We all nodded in agreement. Darry sighed and pulled the truck into reverse.

**Alright guys, here's Chapter 8. I have bad news for you though. For at least five days I won't be able to update, so I apologize ahead of time. I promise when I get back to updating, there will be at least four knew chapters. By the way, how did you like the whole Darry finding a clue that big? How did you like the picture clues? Please, I want to hear your opinions, flames or no flames. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	10. Warned

**Chapter 10-Warned**

**Pony POV.**

Despite the fact that it made me sick to my stomach, I had this whole _I'm-a-kidnapped-child-working-for-a-drug-lord_ thing down to an art. We got breakfast and dinner at the same time every day and every other week, Moorland made the boys and girls switch jobs, one gender would leave and harvest drugs while the other stayed and packaged them. Not that I enjoyed any of it, but sorta I favored the packaging job. Not only did you not have to stand in the sun for hours at a time, but you were allowed to talk to each other in low voices. I also had my first official girlfriend. Angela had gone ahead and announced it among all her new 'girlfriends' the night she'd kissed me. I didn't really mind being her boyfriend. It made all the guys who knew her look up to me. Except for Soda, he found the whole thing hilarious.

"Your first girlfriend and you pick the most dangerous one in Tulsa, maybe even the world." I still didn't get what he meant by that. She wasn't that bad, none of the guys complained about her. Every night, before I went to sleep, Angela would crawl over to me and kiss me for about four solid minuets. After she left Soda would spend the rest of the night laughing at the blush that would appear on my face afterwards. Besides the fact that I was a kidnapped child being forced to work on a drug field, life was pretty great. Until I met one of Angela's ex-boyfriends. It was time for the boys to work packaging drugs and I was silently working next to Soda when this big guy came out of nowhere and began to work beside me.

"Hey, you Angela's new boyfriend?" He asked in a low voice.

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Hey, cool it man. I just came to warn you. Angela is a dangerous girl to be going with." Great, another guy against Angela. I turned to glare at him and jumped at what I saw. His faced was pointed down at the table, but I could still see the hideous scars running across the bridge his nose.

"I'm not saying that Angela is a bad girl personally, but her family, they don't like boys who try to corrupt their sister." He turned to me and I gasped. The scars ran across the beginning of his face and ended under his right eye. It looked like he was attacked by some animal. He smirked at my shocked expression. I finally regained control and his words hit me.

"What do you mean 'her family'?"

"Her two brothers don't take kindly to her dating. Got these when they found out I was her boyfriend." He pointed to his nose scars. Curly and Tim attacked boys who dated their sister? Impossible, the guy must've done something wrong.

"I don't believe you. You probably just pissed them off." He smirked again.

"Oh yeah. Take a look at Anthony Dulcimer. He probably said he got those scar from a fight, right? And what about Dan Barlow? You remember that entire week he was in the hospital. Happened because he dated Angela" I looked and found one of the alleged boys standing not four feet from us. I remember when Anthony had come to school with those cuts stitched up. He had claimed that he was jumped by a carload of soc's, so I had naturally believed him.

"After Tim caught him on the couch with Angela, he freaked and beat the crap out of him." I couldn't believe this. No, it had to be a lie. I'd just ask Angela tonight and she'd say it was a lie. I was sure of that. I spent the rest of my work period working in silence. Later that night, Angela come over earlier than usual.

"Hey Ponyboy, you look like a wreck. Is everything alright?" I guess my appearance gave away my concern.

"Hey Angela. Can I ask you an important question?" She nodded

"What happened to all your other boyfriends?"

"They all get beat up by soc's and end up breaking up with me because of it." Oh no, I thought horrified. It was true. All her boyfriends did get beat up because of her.

"What about your brothers? Are they okay with you dating?"

"Yeah. The only guy they didn't like was Dylan, my last boyfriend. Got him pretty bad too. But I'm sure he just insulted them." By the look in her eye I could tell she was hiding something. Angela left without giving me so much as a goodnight kiss. Soda came over as usual.

"What up Pony? You and Angela in a fight?"

"Soda, what do you know about the boys Angela dates?" Soda's grinned disappeared.

"Stuff. What do you want to know?"

"Who beats them up?" Soda now looked serious.

"Look, I know it wasn't nice to keep the info from you, but I figured since you were entering puberty, I'd let you figure it out on your own." I couldn't believe this. Sodapop, my own brother, to whom I look up to, he had withheld important information that could of possibly saved my life.

"So it's true then? Angela's brothers beat the crap out of all her boyfriends." Soda grimaced.

"Look, I know how this looks right now, but I swear to you, I didn't intend for you to get hurt."

"Getting hurt? I haven't been hurt _yet_! But I'm sure going to when we get out of here and Tim and Curly find me!" I knew I was overreacting, but I was kinda pissed that Soda had failed to tell me that I was most likely going to get the crap beat out of me. I let out a frustrated grunt and pushed myself off the wall I was leaning on, leaving behind a still grimacing Sodapop.

**Well, I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm back with the updates. I'm still not sure if Pony and Angela should break up so I need your opinions. Just cast your vote by pushing the review button. Thank you!**


	11. RansomFight

**Chapter 11-Ransom/Fight**

**Johnny POV.**

We had been in captivity for maybe 15 days when that crazy Moorland dude came into our holding room with news that changed everything.

"Hello my helpful little prisoners! Me and my staff have decided that we're a bit overstocked in the captive section and would like a bit more 'spending change', so we're going to put all you children up for ransom!" Right then and there the line dividing the Socs and Greasers grew larger. Every Soc in the room let out a whoop. Personally, I saw no reason to get excited. Even if my parents did miss me and want me back, which I doubt they did, my family didn't have any money for ransom threats. And how was Darry supposed to get money to free Pony and Soda. As they entered my mind I looked around to find them. Soda was sitting against the wall closest to the door while Pony sat on the floor close to Angela. I knew that Pony had every right to be mad at Soda, but it was killing me to know that Pony no longer thought of Soda as real brother and that wasn't a good thing to think while you were being held captive. Moorland speaking jerked me out of my thinking.

"Now, my staff will be coming in here to film the ransom notes in two days, so you'd better start thinking of what you will be saying. Any questions?" Some unseen child asked the first question.

"What if our family can't afford to buy us back? What will happen?" Definitely a Greaser. Moorland grinned before answering.

"Simple. You don't leave until I get paid," He paused. "If they never pay I guess you work here until you die." He grinned really big after the last statement. He couldn't be serious could he? Surely he had a heart and would release us after a little while. Then again, this was Moorland I was talking about. Anything was possible with a kidnapping drug lord. He left while humming to himself. I vaguely wondered why he would want to put us on ransom. He must make a fortune on dealing the drugs we picked. All the Socs in the room were making plans on what to do when they got out.

"I'm going to take a long hot shower, wash all this dirt and crap off me."

"Yeah, well I'm gonna eat till I can't take another bite."

"Nope, I'm just going to sleep as long as I can, won't wake up till I have to."

And people wondered why us Greasers hated Socs. Here we were, stuck in a small room, kidnapped and forced to work for a drug lord and they still managed to wave their wealth in our faces. By the looks on the other Greaser's faces, I could tell they were probably thinking the same thing. I could hear the other Greasers mumbling things about the still celebrating Socs.

"Stupid rich kids. Think they can get out everything with _money_."

"I hope their families refuse to pay."

"Damn Socs." The Socs finally seemed to see the gloom coming from the Greasers in the room. What they said next pretty much changed how I looked at them forever.

"Aww, don't worry Greasers. It doesn't matter if your families can pay for you or not. Picking drugs is probably the best thing you'll amount to in life." The room echoed with laughter as the Socs cracked up. I've heard my share of insults from the Socs, but this one topped them all. I completely lost it. Giving out strangled yell, I took a running jump and leaped onto the nearest Soc. Luckily, he was a small one, so I had no problems taking him down. I landed on top of him and began pounding him anywhere I could reach. I heard yelling and figured the Socs would soon be pulling me off this guy, but no one ever came. After I finished pounding the crap out of my guy, I stood up and was shocked by the scene that met my eyes. Everywhere Greasers and Socs were fighting. That must have been the yell I heard. I ran through the fighting people to find me another Soc to beat. I saw Pony struggling with his Soc, so I ran over to help.

"Hey Pony, need some help?" I yelled over the chaos. He looked up briefly and earned himself a hard punch from his Soc.

"Ugh, hey Johnny. Way to start an all out brawl with the Socs. Mind helping?" I got down and began hitting the guy as hard as I could. With two of us hitting him, the Soc got knocked out in no time. Pony stood and dusted his jeans off. Pony grabbed the closets Soc, some small red-headed guy, and began punching. I was about to do the same when a loud gunshot rang through the room. Everyone froze. Wait gun, we don't have a gun. I thought to myself. Where-. My question was soon answered by a familiar voice ringing out over the crowd.

"All children who do wish to be shot, line up against the wall and DON'T MOVE." It appeared that our fighting had drawn the attention of Moorland. The effect of his threat was instantaneous. All the kids, Soc and Greaser alike, whom were still conscious, ran to line up against the wall. I looked over the floor from my spot on the wall, and saw the floor was littered with unconscious Greasers and Socs. Moorland stood in the middle of the room, a shotgun by his side.

"Now, I don't care what happened or who started it, but there is absolutely no fighting in this room. As punishment, you all will skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next two days. Do I make myself clear?" A murmur passed through the room and Moorland continued.

"Now, since it's your fault these kids are hurt, you're going to be the ones to take care of them. Got it?" Another murmur.

"Well, what are you waiting for? GET TO WORK." He turned to leave and added on last thing.

"These kids may not be able to work for a little while, but I still expect the same amount of work." With that he left. Everyone stood on the wall for a moment before slowly dispersing to help their injured buddies. I looked around at the hurt kids, looking for anyone I knew. I saw Pony knelling beside someone and went to join him. I gasped when I saw the bloody face. It was Sodapop. Ponyboy was gently talking to him.

"C'mon Soda, you'll be alright. Just hang in there." Pony looked up at me.

"Hey Johnny, could you grab my jacket from the wall, I'm going to use it to at least clean the blood off." I went and fetched it and when I returned, Soda was talking to Pony.

"Hey Pony, I'm sorry about not telling you Angela's brothers don't like her dating. I-" He was interrupted by Pony.

"Shh, I know. Don't over exert yourself. Hold still while I try to clean this blood off."

Me and Pony worked in silence while we cleaned up Soda. He only tried to talk a couple times, always ended up shushed by Pony though. By the time we were finished, we had diagnosed Soda with a broken rib, what seemed to be a sprained ankle and several cuts and bruises from fighting. We had also established that Soda was sorry and Pony had forgiven him, which was really good. Soda wouldn't be able to overwork for a little while, but he insisted upon at least helping us out. That night, while Pony and Soda were falling asleep, Angela came over. She wasn't really talking to Pony, which made me hope they were breaking up soon. I really didn't like her that much.

**Okay, what did you think? Please tell me via Review. THANKS!**


	12. Ransom Film

**Chapter 12-Ransom Film**

**Two-bit POV.**

It had been over two weeks since the three youngest members of our gang had been kidnapped. It wasn't as fun and carefree as it usually was in the Curtis household. No, now it was always somber and quiet, with the exception of Tim and Curly Shepard bursting in with news on the kidnapped children. It was a usual quiet evening at the Curtis house and I was sitting on the couch watching TV. For some reason unknown, I had tuned into the news channel instead of Mickey Mouse. I was drifting off to sleep when an Urgent News Flash popped onto the news, waking me up.

"Attention viewers. We have just received important news involving the 9 missing Tulsa children. I repeat important news. I am going to transfer you over to Ralph Morgan, our Media specialist." I was paying complete attention now

"Hello Tulsa viewers. We have just received a ransom video from the alleged kidnappers of the Tulsa 9. Right now the tape is being reviewed by local cops, but if you tune in tonight at 10, we will have the video up for you to view." I ran to the phone and dialed Darry's number. Someone picked up on the third ring.

"Wright Co. Roofing Company, how may I help you?" Some girl on the phone said.

""Hey, is Darrel Curtis there? This is an emergency call."

"Yes, let me go get him for you." I guess she put me on hold, cause I heard nothing for a short while. Then Darrel came to the phone.

"Hello, this is Darrel Curtis. May I ask who is speaking?"

"Hey Darry. It's Two-bit. What time you getting off work?" I looked at the clock. It was already 8:30, only an hour and a half until they showed the ransom video. **(A/N: I know this is not the normal work time for a roof building guy, but it's for the story so go along with it.) **

"I was just about to clock out when you called with an 'emergency'. What do you want?" He sounded irritated.

"They just on the news that a ransom video was received for the missing kids." Silence on the other side.

"Are you sure?" He finally asked.

"Yeah, the ransom video is going to be shown at ten, so you gotta hurry home."

"Okay, I'm on my way. Get the others and tell them to come over. Tim and Curly too okay?"

"Got it. See you spoon." With that I hung up. I clicked the receiver once and began to dial Steve's number…

**A/N: THE CHAPTER ISN'T OVER! I decided that I was going to show the ransom video being filmed through Ponyboy's POV. Enjoy!**

**Ponyboy POV.**

Well, today was the day that Moorland was supposed to film our ransom videos. It was also the last day of our starvation period. I still had no idea what I was going to say on film. To make matters worse, Sodapop would have to go at the same time as me, since he was injured. It wasn't the Soda-going-on-with-me part that was bad; it was the speaking for Soda part I didn't like. He was healing, but was still extremely weak, so I would have to help him out on air. He had told me earlier today that he didn't know what to say, so he wanted me to write him a speech too. The kids all around me were rehearsing there ransom notes out loud, I guess so they wouldn't forget. I looked over at the Soc side of the room. Ever since our fight with the Socs, we had marked the room in half. One side for Greasers, one for Socs. Neither put a toe on the others side of the room. Kind of like back at home. Anyway, the Socs were still celebrating the fact that pretty soon; they would have freedom, while we would still be stuck here. I really hated the Socs. Sighing, I went back to thinking about what to say on the camera. Suddenly the doors opened and about four big guys walked in, one holding a leaf of papers.

"Okay, this is going to be alphabetical, so when I call you name, follow me." It was time. I looked over at Johnny who was sitting there against the wall, fidgeting. He already knew what to say. A voice down the hall drew my attention. Moorland appeared in the room behind the Big Goons.

"Ah hello. Were ready for the children now, but first an announcement." He turned to us.

"Bad news children. There has been a change in plans." Someone spoke up on the Soc side of the room.

"What? Don't tell me we aren't doing the ransom videos." Moorland frowned at the speaker.

"No, of course not. We've just finished filming the missing New York kids, and due to some unfortunate events, I've decide that you all will have pre-written scripts." A general groan ran through the room, but I was happy. That meant I wouldn't have to write anything for Soda or me. Good, cause I was drawing blanks.

"Good, now that I've got that news out, please call in the first child." He said the last part to the guys. They nodded and the one with the paper cleared his throat and called out the first name.

"Adderson, Randolph" A boy from the Soc side of the room came forward. I wondered how they knew who we were. Then again, these were druggie's. They probably had people everywhere, even in our records.

"Ah, very good, very good. Let's go." Moorland turned and walked back out of the room. Randolph followed him and the four guys after him. The door closed and the room was silent. Whispers broke out from the Soc Side.

"Do you think he'll be all right?"

"He's gotta be, their just filming a ransom video."

"What do you think they'll make us say?"

"Who knows?" They just kept whispering until the Big Goons came back, then it was silent again. They walked into the room and the first thing I noticed was that they didn't have Randolph. Where was he? The one with the paper stepped forward again.

"Andres, Susan." This time it was a Greaser girl who stepped forward and left with the Big Goons. Each time the Big Goons came back, they had no kids. Finally, they reached the C's.

"Cade, Jonathan" Me and Soda both looked at Johnny. He looked a little peaked, but he swallowed hard and stood up to leave.

"Good luck man. See you on the other side." Soda whispered. Johnny nodded and looked at me. I didn't know what to say so I just smiled in what I hoped was an encouraging way. It probably wasn't. Johnny weakly smiled back and headed towards the Big Goons. They left the room in silence. Angela come over and took Johnny's spot beside me.

"Hey Ponyboy. You scared?" I nodded, to afraid to speak.

"I'm sure he'll be alright. What could they possibly do to him?" She and me both knew their where a lot of horrible answers to that question so I didn't answer. She laid her head on my shoulder and we sat together until the Big Goons came back.

"Cutis, Ponyboy and Sodapop." Crap. Looked like my time was up. I got up and went over to help Soda up. He was still waking with a horrible limp and needed help. Together we hobbled over to the door. We walked out and I heard the door close behind us with a snap. Looks like we were on our own with the Big Goons now. I felt myself being prodded in the back to move. There was only one way, so I hobbled down the hallway with Soda. We came to a door I had never noticed before on my walks to the field or bathroom. One of the Big Goons stepped in front of me and opened it. It led into a dark room. I walked in with Soda still on my shoulder. There were about six shadowy guys standing around the room and the only way I could see them was from the light coming from a table. Rather a light pointed _at_ the table. I focused on the table. It was a normal metal table with one chair sitting behind it. I looked back at the shadow guys and said in a shaky voice.

"Umm, I need another chair for my brother. They didn't respond, but I heard one of the Big Goons behind me leave the room. He came back a second later with another metal chair and placed it behind the table. Nobody said anything else, so I dragged Soda over to the table. He let go of me and dropped into the nearest chair, looking at me out of his one good eye questionably. I shrugged and sat in the other chair. Now the bright was directly in my face and I could just make out a camera pointed at me through the glow. One of the guys spoke in a gruff voice.

"Here are your scripts. Read them now. You'll have two minutes to memorize them and then you will talk to the camera. Got it?" I nodded and two pieces of paper were flung onto the table. I took mine and handed one to Soda, not sure he could read it. He took it anyways and began reading. Guess he could. I looked at my own.

_Hello, my name is _**Ponyboy Curtis**_. I was kidnapped from _**Tulsa, Oklahoma**_, two weeks ago. My captors demand that my family pay _**ten thousand dollars**_ to them or you will never see me again. Please send the money to 824 Lockland Drive. 89523 Reno, NV._

That was it. It was so short. And what was up with the whole 'ten thousand dollars'? Damn, not even I would pay that much to save myself. I wondered if we were actually in Reno or that was just a processing center. I was going to looked over at Sodapop's but the guys suddenly took away our papers.

"Alright, since we have two, were going to do this alphabetically, Ponyboy, you're going to say the address before Sodapop says his part. Okay, on the count of five, you're going to look at the lens and say your ransom notes. Ponyboy first and then Sodapop. Got it?" I nodded and asked Soda,

"Do you think you'll be able to say yours on your own?" He nodded. The guy started counting.

"1…2…3…4…5!" I looked straight at the camera and began to speak.

"Hello, my name is Ponyboy Curtis and I was kidnapped from Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago. My captors demand that you pay ten thousand dollars to them or you will never see me again. I paused and Soda picked up where I had left off.

"Hello, my name is Sodapop Curtis and I was also kidnapped two weeks ago from Tulsa, Oklahoma. My captors demand you pay two thousand dollars unless you want me dead." Wait; did he just say two thousand? I didn't care that the camera was rolling are that I was in a room full of what were sure to be deadly men. I just blew up.

"Did he just say two thousand? What the Hell? Mine says ten thousand. Why is he cheaper?" Surprisingly, the guys weren't mad. One answered me calmly.

"Smart kids are worth more."

"SO? BEING SMART DOESN'T CALL FOR AN EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLAR RAISE!"

"Your also younger." For some reason Soda snickered next to me.

"Wow Pony, looks like your brains and youth have caught up with you." Was he making fun of me? The guy who had spoken earlier told me to finish the rest of the note. I sat back down, I guess at some point in the rant I had stood up, and said my last lines. After that I angrily stood up and walked over to the door before I remembered Soda. Grunting angrily I stormed back over and carefully grabbed Soda. Instead of leading us back to the short room, the Big Goons lead me and Soda further down the hall. So that's what had happened to the other kids. We stopped at a door with a lot of sound coming out of it. One of the Big Goons opened it and pointed us in without a word. I stepped into the room, half dragging Soda along too. The room was HUGE! It was brightly lit and the source of all of the noise was the largest group of children I had ever seen. They were so many there; I had no hope of counting them. It looked like there were children there ranging from the ages four through eighteen. Some kids were running, some singing, talking, playing or just nothing at all. I almost didn't hear the door close behind me. I took a step into the room.

**Tune in next time to see what happens! BTW, I still need you to cast that Angela/Ponyboy vote. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	13. New Room New Friends

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 13-New Room New Friends**

**Pony POV.**

_Flash Back:_

_We stopped at a door with a lot of sound coming out of it. One of the Big Goons opened it and pointed us in without a word. I stepped into the room, dragging Soda along too. The room was HUGE! It was brightly lit and the source of all of the noise was the largest group of children I had ever seen. They were so many there; I had no hope of counting them. It looked like there were children there ranging from the ages four through eighteen. Some kids were running, some singing, talking, playing or just nothing at all. I almost didn't hear the door close behind me. I took a step into the room._

_End Flashback_

Soda insisted limping on his own after we were left in the room so I let him go without a fight. I was still kinda pissed that he was cheaper than me. He had a better chance of getting out of here than me. Soda only leaned on me from time to time as we traveled the room. We had been in here for at least ten minutes and still saw no sign of Johnny or anyone we knew for that matter. This place was gigantic and roomy, so much better than the other room. I think there was even some air conditioning. Finally, we heard a voice call out to our left.

"All new comers over here please. All new comers come over here." Me and Soda followed the voice until we found a boy older than me and Soda standing on a chair. Standing just below that boy was Johnny.

"Oh Johnny, thank god. I didn't think we would ever find you." Soda said. He was completely standing on his own and didn't need to lean on me.

"Hey guys. What took you so long?"

"Pony here had a meltdown and it took us a bit longer." Johnny looked at me with a confused expression.

"Johnny, how much was your ransom?" He looked even more confused.

"Eight thousand. Why?" Well at least it wasn't _two_ thousand

"Darry only has to pay two thousand dollars to get Soda back but for me it's ten thousand dollars!" Johnny raised one eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yeah, they said that people pay more for a young smart kid! I wonder why you cost less than me."

"Who knows? I just know my parents won't pay eight thousand to get me back." I hated to be mean, but I had to agree. I doubted his parents even missed him. Slowly, all of the kids from the small room came over to the boy yelling on the chair. When it looked like all the kids were there, the kid got off the chair.

"Hello newcomers. My name is Bobby Marques, and I am the semi-leader for all the kids here." I interrupted.

"Where _is_ here exactly?"

"I can't be sure, somewhere in California, I think." We had traveled all the way to California? Damn, those must have been some strong drugs they gave me when they kidnapped me. He continued.

"Now, you all were probably in a small room before this correct?" The group nodded.

"And you had to work?" Another nod

"Well, that all changed. What has happened is that the guy Moorland, the one who kidnapped us, has kidnapped another group of kids from some other city. Now that he needs that room, he has moved all of you to this room, the general holding room for all his old kidnapped victims. Now that your here, that means that you won't have to work anymore. If you think this is good news, it's not. If you thought you were bored in the other room, this one is worse. At least you had work before. All you have here is other kids." I raised my hand. He pointed to me.

"Yes?"

"Exactly how long have you been here?"

"About a year."

A YEAR! That was way too long. I felt for the guy.

"Now, Moorland hardly ever comes into this room, so we are pretty much on our own. If you have any problems, come to me or any of the older kids, got it?" With that, he stepped of the chair and walked away. I really didn't see what was so bad about this place. There was no Moorland, work, or cramped space. Soda walked after Bobby. How was it he was walking so well? I ran after him.

"Hey Soda, how are you walking so well?"

"Don't know, my ribs just stopped hurting. Kind of numb." I shrugged and continued to follow him. We caught up with Bobby close to a huge wall.

"Hey, wait up Bobby." Bobby turned and stopped.

"What?"

"Well I know the other kids probably wouldn't want to stop and talk to you, but I didn't get to introduce myself. I'm Sodapop Curtis." Bobby looked surprised.

"Is that your real name?"

"Yep, it's even on my birth certificate." Bobby just smiled. He turned to me.

"I suppose you're going to tell me your name is Coca Cola?" I grinned and shook my head.

"Nope, Ponyboy Curtis. Dad_ was_ original."

"Curtis? You two brothers." Soda and I nodded. Bobby looked shocked.

"We never get siblings here. Wonder why Moorland chose you two to break that tradition?" I shrugged. Bobby turned and kept walking.

"So where is your group from?"

"Tulsa. Yours?"

"New York." Same as Dally.

"Hey Bobby, how come you didn't get ransom. I thought Moorland let you out on ransom." I said. He just shook his head.

"My parents didn't want to pay the eleven thousand dollar ransom threat, so I had to stay here while all my friends could go free. I never liked my family." Well I wouldn't either if they wouldn't even pay to free me from a drug lord.

"Why didn't you just escape?"

"It's hard to escape. The only group that ever did was from New Jersey those lucky bastards. I sorta helped them but didn't get out in time. Lucky for me I wasn't caught or I'd be dead by now." Soda who had quietly been walking beside us now spoke up.

"How old were you when you were kidnapped?"

"16" I gasped. He had been the same age as Soda. That would make him 17 now, right. Just think, in one year he'd be eighteen. A thought struck me.

"Bobby, what happens when you turn eighteen?"

"Nothing. When I turn nineteen, they'll move me out of here and I'll have to work on the fields again. I hoped against hope that we would be found before Soda turned nineteen. Actually, before he turned 17. Having spoken with one of the leaders, I dragged Soda, who could walk, back to the chair Bobby had been standing on. Or at least I tried to. I got lost amongst the running children. Confused, I tried to retrace my steps back to Bobby, maybe he could help. Nope, just got more lost. Christ, what was with this place? A kid couldn't get anywhere in this place. How was I ever going to survive?

**This is one of the shorter chapter's, but I like it. I've decided that since you guy**


	14. Ransom Video Seen

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 14-Ransom Video Seen**

**Darry POV.**

It had been over an hour since Two-bit had called with the important news and everyone was now gathered in my house. Even Tim and Curly had managed to make it over and were now sitting on the couch. I was pacing in front of the T.V. which was blaring some inane news about an oil spill somewhere**(A/N: Haha. Get It. Oil Spill.) **It was almost killing me that they were making me wait till ten just to see my brother's ransom videos. If they had one. If they were still alive. I shook the nasty thought out head with a growl.

"You know if you keep pacing like that you're gonna where a hole in the floor." Two bit said from his spot in my armchair. Wasn't like I was using it anyway. I couldn't sit down because of my nerves. Curly got up to get another beer.

'Hey curly. Get me one too." Two-bit called. I sighed. This was no time for beer! This was time for anxiety and panic, couldn't they see that! We were going to find out if Pony , Johnny, Soda, and Angela were still alive. I looked at the clock. Ten minuets until it was ten. I went back to pacing. Finally, after what seemed like several hours, Two-bit turned up the TV and announced it was time. I kicked him out of my chair, my eyes glued to the TV.

"Hello, I'm Elton Dalton and this is your ten o'clock news. Now for what all of our viewers have been waiting for, the ransom video sent in for the missing Tulsa 25. This video was sent in by an anonymous person, who, the police are not sure about. I will now switch you over to the film.

**Hello Tulsa people. Two weeks ago, my men and I came and took twenty-five of your precious children. This video is for the ransom of them. If you will please mail a full check to the address your child states, we will gladly release them in complete safety. **The voice came from nowhere, it was just darkness. There was shuffling and then a light flickered on to reveal a teenage boy sitting at a metal table.

"**Hello, my name is Randolph Adderson and I was kidnapped from Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago. My captors demand that my family pay a ransom of twenty thousand dollars or you will never get to see me again. Please send my ransom to 567 Loggy Trail, 78567 Seattle, Washington. Twenty thousand dollars! **That was such a high price for one kid. I'd never get Pony and Soda back. The camera blinked out then came back on. This one held a girl who was crying. She only was worth a thousand dollars. Huh, I might luck out. A few more kids went on and then we heard a name we had wanted to hear.

"**Hello, my name is Jonathan Cade, and I was kidnapped from Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago. My captors demand that you pay eight thousand dollars for my release if you ever want to see me again. Please send my ransom to 2508 Raynod Way, 05768 Sully, Wisconsin. **Damn, I thought kids were getting overpriced these day's, this was ridiculous! Finally, the two people I had wanted to see the most came on.

"Guys! Shut up, it's them." Pony spoke first.

"**Hello, my name is Ponyboy Curtis and I was kidnapped from Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago. My captors demand that you pay a ransom of ten thousand dollars or you will never see me again. **He paused. Ten thousand dollars. How was supposed to pay for THAT? Soda, who was sitting next to him spoke up

"**My name is Sodapop Curtis and I was also kidnapped from Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago. My captors demand that you pay two thousand dollars unless you want me dead. **Wait a second. I was about to voice my obvious question when Pony spoke again.

"**Did he just say two thousand? What the Hell? Mine says ten thousand. Why is he cheaper?" **Someone behind the camera responded that he cost more because he was smart.

"**SO? BEING SMART DOSEN'T CALL FOR AN EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLAR RAISE!" **I couldn't help but snicker at Pony. He was so funny.

"**You're also younger." I saw Soda snicker.**

"**Looks like your brains finally caught up with you." Pony turned on Soda.**

"**Are you making fun of ME!" **Someone unseen told him to finish his note. Ponyboy sat back down and angrily grunted down the address, which I promptly wrote down. He then got up and angrily stalked off camera while Soda sat unmoving. A angry grunt was heard from behind the cameras and Pony stomped back into the frame to help Soda out of his seat. What was wrong with Soda? Was he hurt or something? Why was Pony helping him out of his chair. I continued to ask my self questions eternally and was so caught up on thinking, I missed Angela's ransom note. I was finally brought back to Earth by a loud shout.

"HEY DARRY!" Two-bit yelled. I jumped and turned to him in surprise.

"Glory, thought you had completely lost all contact with Earth. Been calling you for the last five minuets." Huh? I looked around the room. The TV was off and Steve, Dally, Tim, and Curly had vacated the room. It sounded as if they had moved into the kitchen.

"C'mon Darry. We're discussing the ransom videos now." I got up and followed Two-bit into the kitchen. The boys were gathered around my table and appeared to be in a viscous argument when I entered.

"We have to pay to get them out, we have no choice." Tim told Dally in a snarl.

"Easy for you to say. Angela's ransom was only a thousand dollars. Where the hell are we supposed to get twelve thousand dollars to free Soda and Pony. Twenty thousand if you count Johnny." Dally countered.

"Why don't let Johnny's parents worry about Johnny's bail. I already told you where to get the money for the Curtis boys."

"If we leave Johnny's parents in charge of freeing Johnny we'll never see him again. And we already told you that we weren't going to do anything illegal to get ransom money." Steve put in. I sat down at the head of the table, might as well put in my two sense.

"No, I'm not going to steal for the release of Soda and Pony, but I have an idea." The whole gang listened to my plan. Together we worked out some of the major flaws it had so by the time we were done it was ready to turn over to the cops

**Okay, no reviews lately which worries me. PLEASE REVIEW! Sorry this one was sooooo short. Next will be longer promise.**


	15. Top Dog Fight

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 15-Top Dog Fight**

**Soda POV.**

Not that anyone but Bobby could be sure, but I think we had been in here for about a week. Bobby seemed to have this awesome way of telling time. Anyway, about a week ago, we had been moved to this huge room about a week ago. It was pretty nice too. Had four separate rooms connected to it that lead to bathrooms we were allowed to use whenever we wanted. Nothing much had happened, Pony's new 'girlfriend' was caught cheating on him, so that was the end of that. Oh, and Pony had started an all out brawl, so now this room was cut in half too. It had taken awhile to sort all the people into Socs and Greasers, but it had been done. Now, a huge foot drawn line separated the line. Only children below the age of ten were allowed to cross it. Somehow, with the room split off like that, it seemed homier. It was way easier to navigate through the Greaser part of the room than the entire thing jammed with people. I actually think the Greaser part of the room was much better than the Socs. I was walking along the Soc/Greaser line thinking when a yell yanked me out of my thoughts,

"Hey Greaser, come here." It was a Soc voice. Thinking they were talking to me, I turned to the direction of the voice. A group of big Soc guys were gathered around the line and they were looking over at a huddle of Greasers.

"Yeah you, the small one. Get over here." One of the Greasers detached from group and slowly made his way over to the Socs. With sick realization, I recognized the lone Greaser as Pony. Now the whole room was paying attention to the Socs and Pony.

"Hey Greaser, one of our guys wants to take you on." I didn't here Ponyboy's response. It obviously was what the Socs wanted to hear. They waved someone over. My stomach turned ice cold. The guy they wanted Pony to fight was at least twice his size. He was wearing what looked to be motorcycle attire, right down to the shades. I saw Pony shake his head and let out a relieved sigh. I knew Pony wasn't stupid enough to pick fights with guys twice his size. Then the big guy yelled an insult out to Pony not even I could ignore.

"No wonder ya girl dumped ya. Guess she's looking for a man, not a whiney girl." Did he just question his Manhood? Pony, who had walking away, suddenly stopped and twirled around facing the guy. This time I heard him loud and clear.

"Alright, you want a fight, you got it. Let's go." I don't think I've ever heard that cold tone used by Pony before. He marched right over to enemy territory and went to one of the bathrooms. Guess he wanted privacy for his fight. The big guy followed. I almost wanted to go over and take him out myself, but this was pony's fight not mine. They both entered the biggest bathroom, the door closing and locking behind them. Greasers and Soc alike all ran over to the door, me included. This has to be one of the only times Socs willingly let themselves be close to Greasers. I was lucky to get a spot close to the door, but I still couldn't here what was going on. I could hear muffle voices, but couldn't match one to Pony. They seemed to be arguing. Suddenly, a high pitched squeal rang out from the bathroom. God, I hoped that wasn't Pony, but something deep inside me asked, could the big guy make a sound that high. Thuds were now erupting in the bathroom, the fight had officially started. Every now and then, a yell or yelp would sound out, but no one could match the voices. It sounded like Pony was getting the crap beat out of him. I wanted to go and help him, but the rules of fighting didn't permit that. The fighting went on for about five minuets before it all stopped and a extremely voice that was unmistakably Pony's rang out.

"Now, what is the lesson we have learned?" A mangled voice was heard, but we had trouble understanding what he said.

"Don't question your Manhood." The voice sounded injured. The big guy had lost?

"And what will happen next time you _do_ question my Manhood?"

"I'll never have the capabilities to bear children." What the hell?

"Very Good. And they said you couldn't teach an old dumbass new tricks." Where had _that_ come from? The door handle jiggled and everyone stepped back. The door burst open to reveal….Ponyboy. But it wasn't Ponyboy. This Ponyboy had on the big guys leather coat and shades. In fact, this Ponyboy looked badass. What the hell? He pulled cigarette and lighter out of the leather jacket and lit up. Where did those come from? Everyone was looking at Pony as if he was a king or something. He pulled up the collar on his leather jacket and walked through the crowd without a word. The crowd parted to make a path for him. I looked back in the bathroom to see a bloody heap on the floor. How had Pony managed this? He never fought this well in rumbles! The crowd dispersed and it took me forever to get back on the Greaser territory, what with all the people milling around and talking about the fight. Finally I made it over and saw Pony waving me over by the wall. I struggled past all the people crowding around him and finally made.

"Hey Soda. How's it going?" He asked around the cigarette in his mouth. Huh?

"It's great Pony. Do you mind if I ask you a small question?" he shook his head.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT GUY?" He grinned.

"Can I be honest with you Soda?"

"Sure."

"I don't really know. After he made that remark against my manhood and Angela, I kinda lost it. Don't even remember beating him up. Guess it was blind rage or something. Now everyone is saying what tuff guy I am." He shook his head and took another cigarette out, handing it to me. I didn't realize it, but it was rather welcoming so I took it and lit up with lighter. Johnny finally managed to fight his way over. He was a little breathless.

"Hey…Pony. Nice…fighting." He grinned at Pony. Pony in turn also handed Johnny a cigarette. Johnny took it with a bigger grin and lit up too. The crowd around us thinned out when they realized Pony wasn't going to make a speech and soon we were alone.

"Wow Pony, this sure boosted up your rep." Johnny commented, looking at all the people now talking about Pony. Pony shook his head.

"Sure they think I'm a badass now, but it's not my rep their boosting."

"What?" Johnny asked.

"Go listen to what their saying and you'll see what I mean." I shrugged and me and Johnny began walking around the room, catching snippets of each conversation.

"I heard he was from Dally's gang. I wonder if Dally taught him how to beat up Socs. Dally is one bad ass."

"Really, I heard he was one of the Curtis brothers, you know from the east side? Yeah, they say he's the youngest

"Yeah they say he's the youngest of all of them. His big brothers must have taught him to fight like that."

"How cool."

"Hey look, there's one now." The group talking had spotted me and were coming at me. I ran out of the way and continued on my eavesdropping quest.

"I heard the kid was in cahoots with Tim Shepard and Dallas Winston." One of the guys in the group nodded

"No wonder he was able to beat that guy. No one messes with a kid from Dallas's or

Tim's outfit. Stupid idiot." I had heard enough. Me and Johnny walked back over to Pony's spot on the wall. He was talking to a Soc, Me and Johnny stayed in our spots, giving them privacy. Finally the Soc wondered off and we approached Pony.

"So?" He asked.

"They all seem to think that Dally, Tim, and me and Darry are credited to you winning." He nodded.

"Watch, by the time we get out of here, Dally's reputation will have grown so big not even he will be able to upkeep it." I laughed. Suddenly, Angela appeared next to Pony.

"Hey Pony. Way to go with the fight." She ran her arm up and down Pony's arm. What the? Pony stared at her arm then looked back up at her.

"Hey Angela, what are you doing over here? I thought you hung with your Soc boyfriend over on the Soc side." Angela giggled. Was that woman trying to get back with him? After cheating on him? Over my dead body. I squeezed myself in between Angela and Pony.

"Hey Angela. What brings you over to the Greaser side?" If her brothers knew that she was considered a Soc they would surely die. She glared at me. Glare all you want bitch, I ain't letting you get your hands on Pony.

"I was just over here to congratulate Pony on his fight against Broker Williams. Oh, that was the big guy's name.

"Well, you've congratulated him, now get back over to the Soc side before the Greasers see you. Don't want you getting beat up." Actually I did, but I didn't voice this. She glared at me again and stomped away from Pony and me.

"You know Soda, I could've taken care of her on my own. I don't need you to protect me from Angela Shepard." Pony admonished.

"I know, but be mindful that Angela is going to try and hook back up with you, now that your tuff and popular." Pony grimaced.

"Really wish she wouldn't, she's caused enough problems as it is." The door suddenly burst open and Moorland walked into the room. Wow, it was weird seeing him again after a week of no Moorland.

"Hello children. I'm here with ransom releases. When I call your name, please follow me for your release. Everyone form Tulsa immediately shut up and listened.

"Randolph Adderson. Marie Gyidus. Robert Sheldon. Mary Vance. Please follow me." Well, the first kids to get out on ransom, or what we kids had started calling 'bail'.

I hadn't expected Darry to immediately try and ransom us, twelve thousand was a lot, but I still felt disappointment. The chosen children rushed to get out the door with Moorland. Lucky Bastards.

**Well there we have it. While I was writing this I decide to introduce a new character. Bad-ass Ponyboy! How do you like him? PLEASE REVIEW! **


	16. Plan

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 16-Plan**

**Darry POV.**

Well, we had told the police about our plan and they actually agreed to try it out. It was dangerous, but worth it if we could find the missing children. The plan was to search and see if there were any kidnappings going on, if there were then the mission could continue. As it so happened, kidnappings had just started in a nearby town called Windrixville **(A/N: I couldn't think of another town. Sorry.**) This meant the next part of our plan was put into action. One of our gang, either Two-bit, Steve, or Curly, would be hooked up with a small camera and tracker and put out to be kidnapped. The police and I had privately decided on Steve. Two-bit probably would be killed cause he couldn't shut up and Curly just didn't fit the kidnapping status. I still had yet to tell Steve of his duty. The night we were supposed to go and drop of the kid to be kidnapped, I finally spilled to Steve.

"Hey, Steve, could I have a word with you?" I said this in a soft voice, afraid he would suspect something. I still didn't know how he would react.

'You know how someone is supposed to purposely get kidnapped?" Steve nodded. Suddenly he seemed to understand.

"No. No way in hell am I going to get kidnapped." I stopped him.

'C'mon Steve, don't you want to help save Soda?" I figured mentioning his best friend would help. It did. His eyes got softer.

"But, but, what happens if something goes wrong. Like they find the camera? They'll kill me." I could see he was looking for a desperate excuse not to go.

"Look Steve, they are positive that this camera won't be found. And you will be wearing a tracker too. C'mon, you'll help us find the rest of the gang." He sighed but actually relented.  
"Alright, alright." He sighed again and got into the truck. The whole way to the police station, he didn't say anything. When we got to the station, it was buzzing with activity. It seemed the whole station would be in on this. One of the cops I had planned with come up to me.

"Ah, hello Darry. Well tonights the night we find our children. Can I have a word with you and Mr. Randle alone please?" I nodded and towed Steve over to a vacant desk with the officer.

"Now, a bit of a heads up. We believe that the kidnapper has several children, more than what he took from Tulsa, kidnapped. We want Steve to stay incognito for a little, see if we could find the rest of the children. Are you okay with this?" I looked at Steve. He was pale and shaking slightly. To my surprise, he nodded.

"Yeah, anything to get the kids out." I could see he didn't mean it. The officer just nodded.

"Alright, let's go get Steve hooked up and out to Windrixville." While Steve got hooked up, I was taken aside and told I was the one who had to drive Steve out to Windrixville, alone. I sighed. It wasn't going to be an enjoyable right, since I had to drop off a member of my gang just to get kidnapped. It was going t kill me. Eventually, it was time to take Steve up to Windrixville. We were both I the car and Steve looked like he was going pass out any moment. The entire ride was silent, both of us dreading what was going to happen. Finally, we were there.

"Well, good luck buddy, Say hi to the rest of he gang for me." I said, trying to put on a smile. Steve nodded and gulped. He got out of the car without a word. He waved as I drove off. I could see him out of my review mirror, walking alone on the abandoned road, walking straight to his doom. I drove back to Tulsa in silence, wondering how I could've done this to Steve. I got back to the station. They seemed excited about something.

"Oh Darry! You're back. Just in time. The van is on Steve's tail! Wanna see?" It took three hours for the van to find Steve. Must've been a slow van. I let them lead me to a TV. The rest of the gang was already there, engrossed with the TV. The TV showed a black and white shot of the ground. It appeared Steve was running from something. I could hear Steve huffing as he ran. He turned and I saw what he was running from. A large white van was following him. I watched as the van suddenly stopped and three big scary looking guys got out of the van.

"Oh God, what am I doing here. I'm gonna get killed out here." I heard Steve moan I rolled my eyes. Steve could be such a Drama King sometimes.

"Hey kid, where do ya think your going. Your coming with us." One of the guys yelled and lunged at Steve. I heard him fall and the camera went all over the place. I couldn't make out a thing. After a moment it stopped and everything was calm.

"Alright, he's out. Let's get him in the van so we can get the hell outta here."

"This is the second guy we've picked who wasn't pre-picked. The boss is gonna love this!" I heard someone shout. Wait, pre-picked. As in, they pre-picked the kids. Does that mean my brothers had been pre-picked? God I hoped not. It would just somehow be worse if they had been pre-picked. I turned my attention back to the video. I t was all black now but we could hear voices.

"Well, this puts us two above the number for Windrixville." One said.

"Yeah, but not as much as how many we went over for Tulsa." Another added.

"The Boss was mighty proud of us for that one. Not only did we get an extra while getting that Pony kid but another while getting his brother!" My head snapped up at the mention of my brothers. So Johnny and some other kid had not been pr-chosen? It was a mistake. I continued to listen.

"Yeah, but that broad scratched the crap out of Raul's hand. Should've just left her alone." Someone grunted.

"We couldn't. She had seen us take that one kid away. She would've blabbed to everyone."

"Yeah, and the extra work didn't put us back any. Though, now all of Tulsa has ransoms. I think He put them out too soon." I wondered what he meant by 'the extra work' and 'put them out too soon'. And who was this He person. The voices suddenly stopped and a gruff voice was heard.

"Hey you knuckleheads, we're here. Hurry up, the trucks almost outta gas." Silence was heard for what felt like eternity. What worried me was the Steve wasn't moving. Then again, he police report had said that Pony had been drugged. Guess they did it to all victims. Light suddenly flooded the camera and Steve began to move. At first I thought he had woken up or something, but it turned out he hadn't he was just being moved.

"Alright, the planes going to be here tomorrow to pick them up and take them to California. Make sure Goons hit them up with a shot of Chloroform each before the flight so they don't wake." So Pony and Soda had to go on a plane? Were they in California now? A sheriff came and turned the video off.

"It self charges when it's off. This way we can see what happens tomorrow when he wakes up. I nodded and stood. I was really tired after the three hour drive and wanted sleep more than anything. Everyone slept over at my house, including Tim and Curly, that way we could all go back to the police station together tomorrow. That night had to be the worst night of sleep ever.

**Chapter 16 Up! Thanks to you who have reviewed! PLEASE REVIEW**


	17. Waking Up 2

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 17-Waking up**

**Steve POV.**

All I could remember about last night was that I had been running from some big white van chasing me. I also remember some big dudes getting out and jumping me. They had held a cloth to my face that smelled sweet. Hmm. That must have been the Chloroform I had been warned about. When I started to really think back, I remember Darry dropping me off in some place called Windrixville, and I was scared. Beyond that, everything was foggy. I groaned and rolled over. My head hurt and the surface I was on was hard and uneven. I groaned again and forced my eyes open. I was in a semi-lit room with kids all around me. What was I doing here? What was with the kids? Why did I have such a huge headache. I sat up.

**NOT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! I don't have to do the whole 'finding out I was kidnapped and Moorland shows up' thing twice so were skipping ahead to Darry's POV as Steve wakes up.**

The gang and I had had a restful sleep. Rather, they did. I had spent the whole night worrying about our missing gang members. I hoped I hadn't done anything wrong to get Steve killed. We all drove to the station in my truck as planned and when we got there, the station was buzzing with activity.

"Ah, Hello Darry, restful sleep? I hope so because we're about turn on the Steve Cam."

"Steve Cam?" I asked.

"Oh, the officers have named the camera that Steve is wearing the Steve Cam." I rolled my eyes and allowed myself to be taken to the room we had been in last night. Someone had set up some comfortable chairs, a snack table loaded with coffee, donuts, and other breakfast goodies. There were already some non-police adults sitting around and talking. I could only guess that they were parents to the other kidnapped children. The gang dispersed through the room. Two-bit went over for some coffee, I think this was the first time he had gone through the whole night without drinking. Tim and Curly went and claimed a whole row of seats for the gang despite the nasty looks they were getting from the surrounding adults. Dally just kinda stood here staring at the still blank TV before taking a

seat on our reserved row. I joined him and soon after Two-bit sat next to us and handed me a coffee. Our entire row was getting dirty looks from the Soc adults. The other Greaser parents just sat down around us, sometimes giving us encouraging smiles that seemed to say 'hold in there. They'll eventually leave you alone'. After about thirty glares, cops came into the room and sat themselves amongst the adults and us. One got up and turned on the TV. It Was black first and them it blinked into a black and gray picture. It looked like Steve had been laid down face up and was definatley not on a plane. The ceiling looked like it was stone or cement. Suddenly, a groan was heard and the camera moved. Looked like Steve was up. He groaned again and this time sat up. The camera whirled a lot but finally became stable as he stopped moving. Now I could see a small room full of kids lying on the floor all over the place. Some were still snoozing while others were groaning themselves to wake up. Steve stood and looked around. The room was really small and looked kind of stuffy. I couldn't tell what Steve was doing, but the camera moved around a lot. As if he were jumping. What was he doing? Suddenly a loud voice that defiantly wasn't a child's came over the room.

"Silence! I said SILENCE! All turn your attention to me NOW!" The entire room shut up. Steve turned and we all saw a large man, not strong like the guys who had taken Steve, the other huge. He was smartly dressed and still demanding everyone's attention. Finally, after he felt he had all the attention in the room, including ours, he spoke.

"Hello children. Welcome to Moorland Farms, the dream farm of every drug addicted teen. My name is Mr. Moorland, and for the next few weeks, I will be your boss. Any questions?' Several hands went up. Mr. moorland pointed to one. It was a small child.

"What do you mean your our boss?" the little one asked.

"I mean you will be working for me on my farm." Moorland replied. He pointed to another person. This was a older boy, around Steve's age.

"How long are we working on your 'farm' exactly?"

"Just a few weeks." Moorland said.

"And then what?" This question came from Steve himself.

"And then, just like Tulsa, you'll all be put up for ransom." The room was silent again. I could only imagine Pony, Soda, Johnny, and Angela going through this. This guy obviously owned a drug farm. My little brothers had worked on a drug farm a couple weeks ago? For some reason I felt like crying. When no one asked anymore questions, Moorland left, but the room remained silent, as if he was still there. Steve moved over to a wall and slumped down. After that, he didn't move. Had he gone back to sleep? He must have because a cop got back up and turned it off. People immediately began to move around and leave. I had already told the gang to leave without me, I was going to see if the cops had any idea where Steve was. The gang had insisted that they were going to stay. Pretty soon the just the cops and us. I walked up to one.

"Um, can you tell me who's in charge of this case?" He looked me up and down before giving me a short answer.

"Officer Marco." Then he walked away to continue his business. I looked around helplessly for anyone who could help me find Officer Marco. All the cops were ignoring me as if I wasn't there. I saw a desk clustered with cops o I decided to investigate. Sure enough, the plaque on the officer's desk read OFFICER MARCO in gold letters. The man sitting behind the desk was telling all the cops a story about the kidnappings. I pushed my way through the group.

"Uh, Hi, Officer Marco. I'm Darrel Curtis. We talked earlier." He was the guy I had told the plan to. He looked up and grinned. He wave me over and sent the still hovering cops away.

"Ah Mr. Curtis. We have important news about the kidnappings. Got a reading off the tracking device Steve was wearing. It is currently in San Jose, California."

"Wait, so my brothers are in California?" Officer Marco frowned.

"We won't know that until later Mr. Curtis. We can't activate our teams until Steve sees if the kidnapped Tulsa children are there or not There is a possibility we have the wrong kidnappers."

"Wait, I just risked my best buds life and you guys don't even know if you have the right guys or not? Why weren't we told this earlier, before I sent Steve out there to risk his ass?" I had not heard a word of 'it may not be the kidnappers'.

"What are you going to do if you do have the wrong guys."

"We'll have to go and get Steve out and rethink a plan to find the Tulsa children." So this was a shot in the dark. A guessing game. How stupid could I have been to trust the cops? I should have foreseen them pulling crap like this. And now another member of our gang was gone for no reason. I turned around without another word to Officer Marco and marched away from his desk. I couldn't believe that bastard had tricked me into giving up Steve. The rest of the gang was waiting at the door for me.

"Well?" Dally asked, annoyed I hadn't spoken yet.

"They don't even know if they have the right people." I answered. "But they do know that Steve is in California right now. San Josh I think he said."

"What do you mean, they don't know if they have the right guys. Can't they just go over to San Josh and see for themselves. When are we going to bring Steve back." Tim demanded.

"As soon as they have confirmation that the Tulsa kids are there or not." Tim was quite for a second. He looked over to his brother who gave him a small nod.

"Well boys, it appears that Curly and I are going to go ahead to Plan B." Tm said. Dally shot Tim a glare and asked,

"What's Plan B."

"I have a thousand dollars set aside for Angela's ransom. I'm going to get her out." He was bailing too? What was wrong with this town? Everybody just bails out on everybody. Tim and Curly left in silence. I looked at my last two gang members. The only ones who weren't missing and in danger. Dally was watching Tim and Curly's retreating forms as Two-bit whistled a tune not known to man. I sighed and walked out the door. I knew that Dally and Two-bit were following me and for some reason, it made me feel worse. It was apparent that I was the worse gang leader ever. Even though I never really considered myself the gang leader, I knew they did and now I had lost over half of the gang. I knew I would have to do everything, anything, I could to get my boys back.

**Sooooo, How did you like it? My next chapter is going to be way funnier, so hold on, I should update tomorrow.**


	18. The King

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 18-The King**

**Soda POV.**

Only two days ago Pony had beat the living snot out of that Broker guy. Now he had somehow picked up the name The King. Every thought he was The King of fight I guess. Anyway, he was complete royalty now. Everyone looked up to him, including Socs! Not only did everyone listen to every word he said, but they also listened to me and Johnny! He even had a turf. Half of the greaser side was Pony's turf now. It was funny what beating up one guy could do to your popularity status. Pony even had body guards. He had hired two of the biggest burliest guys in our room. Now they stood guard around him and the turf. Only people Pony liked or had relation to were allowed on his turf. Of course I was the first to be allowed on The Kings turf, so I hand everyone under my thumb too. The leather jacket Pony had taken from his victim never left his body. Neither did the shades, unless he was alone and didn't want to look tuff anymore. I had to admit, for being a kidnapped kid, he was getting pretty far up the social chain.

Johnny POV.

Well, Ponyboy seemed to have this whole kidnapping thing in his control. Not only had he beat one of the tuffest guys in jail, whom we later found out used to be Dally's friend up in New York, but he also got dubbed The King. Personally, I called him Ponyboy. He wouldn't let me call him The King. Now even I got attention from everybody, being Pony's friend and all, and the girls loved me. They thought it was cute how I had 'such innocent eyes' and 'such a trusting personality. Obviously they had not see me on the streets. I was know were near trusting. I was a JD. A hood. And that wasn't going to change. I think I was beginning to like this place. I mean, it was bad that I was here and all, but at least I wasn't being beat every night by a drunken man. And at least some woman didn't yell at me every time I showed my face. The only thing I felt bad about in the kidnapping situation was that I no longer had the whole gang to back me up. Half of the gang was here, the other half in Tulsa. I knead felt bad for Darry. I mean, he was his brother's legal guardian and both of them had been nabbed. Then again, it would've been worse if Soda hadn't been nabbed too. Who would've kept Pony's nightmares at bay? I looked over to Pony, who was sitting on his 'throne' a pile of pillows donated by fans, looking around his 'turf' with a proud grin. I smiled and shook my head as someone on the other sides of the guards started yelling. I frowned and concentrated on the voice. Crap, it was Angela again. She had been trying to get back with Pony ever since he had beaten that big guy. For the fame I'm sure. Pony had actually went a far as to kick her out of his turf, but she always barged right back in. I sighed as she got past the guards.

Pony POV.

I frowned as Angela found her way past the guards. I knew it was wrong to tell them to keep her out, her being Tim and Curly sister and all, but I didn't want to talk to her. I knew if I got back together with her She'd just use me. She came right to my throne er, pillows, that I was sitting on.

"Ponyboy, how dare you kick me out of your turf." I sighed.

"Is that all Angela?"

"No. You're going to undo my ban right now." This made me mad.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Angela smirked.

"Oh, and why not Pony?"

"Cause I'm 'The King'" HA, lets that woman shoot that down.

"Yeah, The King of Immaturity."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Does too."

"How so?"

"Kicking me out of you 'turf'? Is that the best way you could get rid of me?"

"No, but it was the easiest. You brought this on yourself."

"No I didn't."

"Yeah, by sticking your tongue down some guy's throat!" I hadn't mentioned the fact that she had cheated on me. Not even when we broke up. I was traveling on uncharted territory now. Uncharted and dangerous. Her eyes stormed over and she looked like she was about to eat me in one bite.

"That was an accident!"

"Yeah, it was. Your accident." I really need to know when to shut my mouth. I saw her fist clench.

"Take that back." I almost did. But then I remembered I was The King. The King is a bad-ass street hood who doesn't take no for and answer. The King doesn't apologize to them, they apologize to The King!

"No." I said with finality. She had turned a bright red color. I thought she was about to burst. She raised her hand and was about to hit me when the door burst open and Moorland came in. Angela stopped mid swing and looked over at Moorland. He had been in here every other day to take away more and more Socs away and sometimes Greasers when they had been paid 'bail'. He said the names of the ones leaving.

"Danny Moreno

Zelda Thesus

Angela Shepard"

Angela was leaving? I felt happy and sad at the same time. Happy because Angela was getting out of my hair and sad because she would be the first to leave. Darry had no way of making twelve grand so me and Soda had gone no where and Johnny hadn't either. But that didn't surprise. I doubted his parents even knew he was up for ransom. It would be Darry ad the gang who ransomed him if anyone. Angela's mouth opened with the surprise. I actually wasn't that surprised. I'm sure that a thousand dollars was nothing to Tim and Curly, I was surprised that it had taken them this long to free her. She dropped her fist and looked back at me frowning.

'This isn't over Curtis. As soon as you get out, you'll have it coming to you. I'll be your girlfriend if it kills you." You could not possibly know how much that scared me. I had a feeling she meant it too. She skipped away from my Turf and towards the door, not even looking back once. Soda, who was on my right side put a hand on my shoulder.

"I thought she was going to beat you for sure." I looked at him, he seemed to find this situation funny. I couldn't help but smile too.

"Yeah, but that last part kinda worries me. Do you think I should just date her, to get her off my back?" Soda shook his head.

"Nah, if your going to get up by Tim and Curly, it should be because you love Angela, not because you want to shut her up. Besides, since your not technically dating anymore, Tim and Curly won't beat you right?" I shrugged. I wasn't sure if Tim and Curly beat those were currently dating their sister or those who had also. I really didn't want to find out. As Moorland was closing the door, I saw a row of kids going past it, to the drug fields. Moorland must have got his new shipment. Poor kids. In a few weeks they would join us here. I sighed and turned to Soda who was trying to tell me a joke.

**I am taking your advice and updating now. Hope you like it!**


	19. Angela Fire

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 19-Angela **

**Angela POV.**

I was finally going home! I couldn't believe it when Moorland called my name. I mean, I had been expecting it, but I just didn't know when. I knew that Tim wouldn't rest until he had me back. Moorland led me and the other two twerps down the hallway, in the direction leading back towards the old small room. As we walked, a group kids walked to the drug fields were I had worked. Those poor saps. The line had stopped and so had we, Moorland was talking to the big guys leading the new kidnapped line. I saw a familiar face in the line. I blurted out.

"Steve?" The boy turned to me and I saw it was Steve. Steve Randle, whom Soda, Johnny and The King Asshole hung with. I was close enough to whisper talk with him and not get caught by Moorland.

"Angela? So this _is_ the right place." I had no idea what he was talking about. Moorland came back up to use and told us to turn around. Confused I did so and we marched back the way we had come, the new kidnapees trailing along behind. We came back up to the room and Moorland opened the door.

"Back in." He said shortly

"Wait, but aren't we supposed to be released. My family paid your price, so you have to set me free." My comment made him mad.

"I ain't gotta do anything baby face. _You_ gotta get into that room though." Shocked that he said such a thing to me, I went back into the room. To my surprise the long line of kidnapees followed. Wait, didn't they have to get to work on those fields? The door slammed shut behind me. I pressed an ear to the door. I heard urgent talking.

"How the hell could they have tracked us?"

"I don't know, but we gotta get outta here. Burn the place down to the ground and get the fuck out."

"Wait, what about the kids? Shouldn't we like get them out first?"

"Screw the fucking kids. The police are going to be looking for me. What better way to slow them down than to leave them a few hundred dead kids?"

"How are you going to kill them all?"

"We'll let the fire take care of that. Now, go and set the field on fire, you, go get the lighter fluid out of my office and trail from the field to the door. Let's set these little brats on fire." I hoped to god he was just kidding. Trying to scare us or something. Nobody else had listened through the door so no else was cared but me. Think, think Angela! Oh I got it, I rand to Steve, who was looking at the room in confusion and pulled him aside.

"Steve, I need your help." He looked at me confused and nodded.

"I just listened through the door and I found out they are going to set this place on fire. Wit us in it." He looked at me panicked.

"I need you to go find the most important person on the Soc side and tell them about the fire. Then tell them to tell all of there buddies. Got it?" He nodded quickly and as I was about to run off for the Greaser side, he gabbed me.

'Wait Angela, where are you going."

"I'm going to tell the Alpha Greaser what I just heard."

"Alpha Greaser?"

"Yeah, Curtis. He's the Alpha Greaser now"

"Sodapop is the top dog?"

"What no, Ponyboy."

"WHAT?"

"I'll explain later. Just go!"

"No way. I gotta see this for myself!" Did he really have to be stubborn right now. I gave up and ran over to the Greaser side with Steve. I had to knock a few of the smaller kids out of the way, but it was for a better good. When we reached the Greaser side, I crossed over to The King Turf.

"Hey Angela, you know your not supposed to be on The Kings Turf. He's gonna get mad at you." A small boy yelled as we passed. I hate small kids. We reached the guards.

"Hey Angela, I thought you were leaving."

Change of plans." I growled. They let me past without fuss. I knew they would, they were semi-scared of me. Ponyboy was sitting were I had left him.

"Angela? What the hell are you doing here?"

"No time to hate me Pony. There's a emergency." Steve spoke up next to me.

"Yeah Pony, an emergency." Pony looked over at the sound of his name and gaped at Steve. Soda, sitting at Pony's right yelled.

"Steve! Why are you here?"

"No time for pointless questions. There going to se the building on fire."

"With us in it." Steve added. Idiot. Pony looked back and forth at me and Steve, as if he was trying to figure out what trick was being pulled on him. A yell came over from the Soc side of the room. I twirled around and saw a few Socs gathered around the door, which was spewing smoke. Crap! We had been too late. Not that telling the Socs would have solved anything, just warn them, but still. Pony jumped out of his chair/throne and just stood there stupidly, looking at the smoke. More and more kids went into hysteria. Oh God, how was I going to get out of this one?

**How do you like the sudden turn in events? It just popped in my head at the last second. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	20. On Fire

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 20-On Fire**

**Pony POV.**

Things seemed to be happening way too fast. First Angela left and I thought we wouldn't have to see her until bail was paid, but then she had shown up about five minuets later with Steve. I still didn't know the whole back story to that one. Angela, who had been trying for weeks to get in my pants, was now telling me we would all be burned to death. Naturally, I didn't believe her. Not only was she Spawn Of Satan (No offense to Tim and Curly of course) but she had just suddenly shown up with someone who is supposed to be halfway across the country? I must have fallen asleep or something. Someone pinch me. Yells brought my attention away from Angela and Steve and to the source of the screaming. Several kids were all looking at the door, which now had thick smoke pouring out of it. What the hell? More kids were looking at the door now, all horror-stricken looks plastered on their faces. This had to be a dream. Why would Moorland try to burn us down? We were worth too much money. The smell of smoke soon wafted over to my corner. It hit me. Even if I had listened to Angela, it still would have been too late. There was no way out of this. The best luck we would have would be to stay near the door way and try to get out when it burned down. I turned to the teens surrounding me.

"We need to get to the door. Stay close to it until it burns through, and then get out." I yelled. Only Soda and Johnny nodded as if they understood. They were the first to take off running, the others and I soon following. We fought our way through the condensed group of kid to get to the door. When we got there, the door had already caught fire. Kids were beginning to run all over the place, trying to get away from the fire. Many had begun to cry, seeing that this might be the last moment in their lives. The fire still hadn't burned through the door. Must be made of thick wood or something, now the walls caught on fire. The whole section of the wall that was connected to the door slowly went up into flames before my eyes. I immediately saw my mistake. By the time the flames would eat through the heavy door, the rest of the room would be in flames and we would be toast. We didn't have enough time. I couldn't think of what to do now. My school had never taught a course on 'What to Do If a Physco Kidnapper Tries to Kill You and Hundreds of Kids at the Same Time' I suppose the safest part in the whole room would be the middle of the room, as far away from the burning walls. The fire had now spread to two other walls and I could already see kids starting to catch on fire. I was numb inside. I was actually watching a mass murder in motion. I wanted to puke but couldn't.

"Get to the middle of the room!" I yelled to the gang. They looked at me as if I was a foreign speaker, but started to run anyway. I was close to the middle of the room when something heavy hit me in the back of the head and I sank into darkness.

**Sodapop POV.**

This was terrible. I watched as kids tried to get away from the burning walls only to catch on fire. I heard Pony yell something beside me and managed to make out 'middle of the room' for some reason, I didn't understand what he was saying. I saw Angela, Steve and Johnny running, so I just followed them. Pony was right in front of me when a huge falling thing come out of nowhere and hit pony in the head. It wasn't on fire, so luckily Pony didn't light up. I looked up. The fire had reached the ceiling now. The air was heavy and unbreathable. I felt myself fading and at first tried to fight back. It was too heavy. I couldn't fight it off. I gave up and let myself fall next to Pony, slowly passing out until all that was left was darkness.

**Johnny POV.**

Good god. What kind of monster would do this to innocent kids? These children had done nothing to Moorland yet here he was, killing them off like they were nothing. Pony had told us to run to the middle of the room. Well, me and Angela and Steve were there. I turned to ask Pony what to do next and found no one. I looked around. Soda was missing too. I turned to Angela.

"Angela. Where are Pony and Soda? They were right behind me!" She shook her head.

"I don't know. What do we do now?" I shrugged. Damn it! Where was Pony when you needed him? I ran back the way we had come. All the walls were ablaze now and the room glowed red from the fire. I couldn't breathe. Several kids ran into me trying to run from the fire but getting no where. I was just about to get up when something hit me in the back of the head and I passed out into sweet darkness.

**Steve POV.**

This was unbelievable. The room was red with fire and everywhere, kids were catching on fire. I could tell that some were burning to death, not doing that stupid stop drop and roll thing I had been taught in Kindergarten. I wanted to help them, but I was glued to my spot in he middle of the room by fear. I was deathly scared. Johnny had just run off, Pony and Soda had never made it over here to the middle of the room and Angela was crying herself silly. I offered to go try and find the boys, but she immediately vetoed that idea, saying if I left I would never return and she would be by herself. I suppose she was semi-right, but I had to find Soda, Johnny and Pony. I had just got here and was supposed to try and protect them for Darry. I was doing a bad job at it. I ran off before Angel could stop me. Kids littered the floor. Some were just passed out, smoke inhalation or falling ceiling. I couldn't tell. I watched, horrified, as a passed out kid who was too close to the wall caught on fire. He didn't even wake up. He was going to die in his sleep. I knew that there was nothing I could do. If I got too close to the wall, I'd be toast. I continued to look around for familiar faces while kids ran everywhere, trying to find a way out. There was no sign and I was beginning to get sleepy. I couldn't fight it. The heaviness on my eyelids and the warmth off the fire, however close it may be, was so inviting. I struggled to get away from the wall. When I felt I was far enough away, I collapsed into the welcoming darkness.

**Angela POV.**

Goddamit! I had told Steve not to fucking leave me and now I was alone. Slowly but surely, the entire pack was being picked off. I couldn't stop the rushing tears. I knew Greaser girls weren't supposed to cry, but there had to a few who cried right before death. I was only sixteen! I wasn't supposed to die yet. I saw a shiny object that attracted my attention. A table! And it was metal. It might be hot, but at least it wasn't on fire. I slowly crawled under it, balled myself up, and cried like there was no tomorrow. There probably wouldn't be.

**Well! How do like the sudden change in plot? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!**


	21. Found

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 21-Found**

**Curly's POV.**

After me and Tim left the police station, he told me the real plan. It was apparent that the cops weren't going to actually help. Not for a few weeks anyway. Tim told me that we were going to mail Angela's one thousand dollars and get a tracker to follow it. It seemed like a pretty good plan to me. We went home and Tim put the money into a normal, everyday envelope. I couldn't remember what address we had to send it to, but apparently Tim had written it down. He was the smart one in the family. I had no idea were the money had come from, probably wasn't legal though. Tim walked out of the house and I watched as he put it in the mailbox, pushing that little red flag thing up. I felt kinda bad for leaving Curtis, Dally, and the talkative one on there own. I mean, Ponyboy was pretty cool and Sodas was a nice kid. Neither deserved this and we had just ditched them. I shook my head and sighed as I released the curtain. I hoped the kids were found soon.

**Darry POV-Two Days Later**

I had brought the remainder of the gang, the two left, back to my place to get some sleep. I was tired myself and ready to fall asleep before my head hit the pillow. I went into the kitchen to have a bit of chocolate milk. Everybody else got settled in and were just getting to sleep when the phone rang. I waited for one of the boys to pick it up, but they just looked at it as if it was from another planet. Sighing I trudged out of the kitchen to pick it up.

"Curtis residence, Darrel speaking." My eyes began to water. I remember when Soda would pick up the phone and just go 'Yo. Soda here.' When he answered.

"Yes, hello Mr. Curtis. This is San Jose Police Department. We would like to inform you that there was an incident that might have involved your brothers." San Jose! That's were the doofus cop had told me Steve was sent. What did this guy 'might have'?

"Um. What happened? What do you mean might have?" The guy on the other line cleared his throat.

"Well sir, perhaps you should turn on your TV. I must be going now. I have several other people to call." I thanked him and hung up the phone. I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned the TV on. Mickey Mouse. I flipped through the channels until I came across a news station. I turned up the volume, much to the dismay of Dally and Two-bit.

"Ugh, Darry, turn it down." Two-bit moaned. I shook my head.

"Two-bit, Dally! Wake up, you gotta see this." Dally grunted but opened his eyes while Two-bit kept his close.

"**We are now here at the scene of a deadly fire were an accused drug lord, Roger Moorland, is wanted for the kidnapping and murder of three hundred and fifteen children. Two hundred of these children were found dead on scene. Only a hundred and fifteen children are currently alive. We are still looking for more of the missing children. The San Jose police came out here earlier to arrest the accused drug lord when they heard several screams and smoke pouring out of the 14000 acre land which Moorland has been using to harvest drugs for the last three years. Police also have a lead that Moorland has been using these children to harvest drugs. No news on were the still missing drug lord is."** Oh crap. My brothers had been in a fire? They had said only a hundred of the missing kids had been found alive. I knew for a fact that there were way more than three hundred and fifteen kids missing. The police here had said there was over five hundred taken in the past year. Oh god, I was going to lose my brothers. I sat down, tears ready to go down my cheeks as I remembered all the times I had yelled at Pony for inane things such as grades or his general lack of use of his head. I had wasted all that time yelling at him, time I could have spent being a better big brother. No wonder he liked Sodapop better than me. Now, though, now I had neither of them. I put my head into my hands so Dally and Two-bit wouldn't see me crying. A comforting hand was placed on my shoulder. I looked up into the calm eyes of Two-bit.

"Darry, there is a chance that their alive. They just said they were finding more kids alive now." I shook my head.

"With my luck, I've lost them. Do you know what my last words to Pony were before he left for school that morning were? Don't be home late, you have chores. I didn't even tell him that I loved him. What kind of brother am I?"

"The best ever, duh. The only reason you talk like that to Pony is because you care about him. The reason you don't tell him you love him is because he already knows." I suppose that was true. I knew Pony wouldn't have stuck around if he didn't think I loved him. I stood knowing what I had to do.

"How do you guys feel about flying?" Both Two-bit and Dally, who had been watching silence, gave me a questioning look.

**On The Way To San Jose.**

"Hey baby, you fly often?" Two-bit asked a passing stewardess, who ignored him.

"For the love of all that's holy Two-bit, leave the poor woman alone." I groaned. Ever since he had laid eyes on the blonde girl passing through the aisles helping passengers, he had been intent on getting her number. The poor girl had been called over by at least ten times by him so he could flirt with her. I had got me, Two-bit, and Dally a last minuet airline ticket using my emergency bank account. I felt this was bad as it was going to get, might as well dip into it. We had boarded the plane with nothing; we hadn't had time to pack anything. Lucky for us, there was a flight to San Jose still boarding. Now we were here, trying to keep Two-bit away from the stewardess. I rubbed my temple as a hint of a headache made itself known in my head. Between the events that had happened in the last hour and now this, I was ready to pass out. Might have too, if I wasn't so damn worried.

**Thank You for all your reviews, I love em. The next chapter will be about the kids being found. I'll try to have it up today! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	22. Finding

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 22-Finding**

**Angela POV.**

I had been hiding under the extremely hot table, still crying, my eyes shut tight, when the men found me. One moment, the entire room was on fire and kids were dying all around me, and then the screaming just stopped. I don't know if I went deaf or what. I opened my eyes and there was a man looking down at me. He was reaching for me and at first I thought it was Moorland. I smacked his hand away as hard as I could and backed away from him. Right into the burning hot table that wasted no time in burning through my clothes. I yelped and jumped away from the leg of the table leg I had just touched. The mysterious man was reaching for me. I didn't have time to fend him off. He had already grabbed my arm and I did the first thing that came to mind. I bit him as hard as I could. I now it's not what sixteen year-olds are supposed to do, but I didn't want to be sixteen right then. I wanted to be three again. In my mother's arms, before she had left us. I wanted to be far from here. Five again, when dad was still alive. I didn't want to be the sixteen year old girl crouching under the table like I was. More tears came out. I felt a hand on my arm again, trying to get me out of from under the table. I didn't fight anymore. I let myself be pulled out, eyes too blurry from tears to see who was doing the pulling. I still couldn't hear anything as I wiped my eyes. The room in which I had been in was no longer there. Instead, there stood a 3-foot wall, blackened around the edges, which could have been the holding room at some point. Some ways further was a wide open burnt piece of land that I knew had been the field in which we had picked drugs. There were guys all over the place, some in yellow suits, other in blue and they were pulling thing out of the ashes. Things I soon identified as children. _Oh God,_ I thought. _What had happened to The Curtis brothers, Cade, and Randle?_ They had all disappeared during one point of the fire and never made it back. Had they been burnt to a crisp like some of the kids here, or had they managed to make it out safely? I felt my eyes wetting at the thought of them all being dead. Especially Pony. I had always liked him, but had ended up breaking his heart. I myself didn't know why I had done that. I had vowed to get him to be my boyfriend again, get another shot at it, and now he was possibly gone. The guy who still had a firm hold on my arm now began dragging me over to a flashing light. No, not a flashing light. A truck with a flashing light. _An ambulance,_ my brain reminded me. Was I hurt? I looked down at myself and immediately cringed. My neck hurt from crouching under the table for so long. I was covered in soot and parts of my clothes were burned away. Nothing that showed anything thankfully. I was begging into get my hearing back, and wished that I hadn't. All around me, shouts were being called to men to other men. They were lining up long bags now, body bags to be exact, while some lined up stretchers filled with people who were still alive. I wanted to run over and see if the boys had made it okay, but a lady in a white dress was forcing me to sit down. Before I knew what was happening, someone forced a mask over my head and around my nose and mouth. Immediately breathing was easier. I hadn't realized I was having a hard time breathing. Someone pulled me up and led me over to the stretchers. Uh?

"Lie down please." A voice said. Not knowing what was going on, I did as I was told and lied down on a empty stretcher. I looked to the right of me. It was a boy I didn't know. His skin was all pink and icky, and he too had a mask on. Burn victim. On my left was a familiar dark face. Johnny. Oh good, he had made it. His eyes were closed and his arm was strapped down to the bed. Must have broken it at some point. Well, that was one of the boys taken care of. I felt a prick in my arm and my snapped to it. The nurse had put a needle in it and was hooking me up to an IV. I watched as the nurse who had hooked me up to a IV checked the pulse of the boy to my right. Shaking her head she called someone over. I watched, once again horrified, as the cops put the boy in a body bag and moved it away. The boy had died less than two feet away from me. Just died right there. Another body was put on the now empty stretcher, I didn't even bother to see of it was someone I knew. What if it was and they died too. Tears came, again. Sound broke through my worrying.

"Miss? Miss. Can I have a moment of your time?" It was a reporter. Why was a reporter in this wreck? How had the police let them through? I looked blearily at the camera and tried to make sound but soon realized I still had the oxygen mask on. I slipped it off, there was no nurse to stop me from doing so.

"Y-yes."

"May I ask what your name is?"

"Angela Shepard."

"Are you one of the kidnapped and missing kids the country has been looking for?" I nodded.

"Could you tell us what happened?" I shook my head. As soon as I had taken the mask off, my breathing had gotten worse and I saw a nurse coming and knew she would make me put the mask back on. I put it on before she had the chance to and the reporters took this as a sign that I was finished talking. The nurse came up to me and seeing I was awake, started tutting. She reached inside her pocket and pulled out a shot, which she injected into my IV bag. I had no idea what it was, but within minuets I was feeling drowsy. I panicked. Last time I had unwillingly fallen asleep, I had ended up kidnapped and put in a burning room. I fought the sleep as much as I could and actually won. I could still feel sleep pulling me, but I ignored it and stubbornly sat up in my stretcher. A nurse was at my side in seconds.

"Miss, you need to lie down and go to sleep immediately. Remember what happened last time. I shook my head and forced my eyes to stay open. Sleep was creeping up on me. Seeing this, the nurse brought out red straps and began hooking them to the right side of the bed. I had no clue what she was doing. She brought the red straps closet to my feet to the left side and attached to my left. She was stripping me down! So that I couldn't move. I struggled, but this nurse was quick and strong. She forced me down and added the strap across my chest.

"I'm sorry, miss, but we need all of our patients to go to sleep. You all show a lack of rest and the head nurse demands that we put you to sleep." The nurse told me kindly. I didn't care! All I cared about was the fact that I had been drugged and strapped onto my stretcher. Sleep was taking over and I could no longer keep my eyes open. I drifted off into peaceful darkness, half afraid that I would wake up in a much scarier place than I had before. Sleep took me down before I could fight any longer.

**Well, I'm getting very good reviews, which makes me happy. Stay tuned for the next chapter. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	23. Wake Up 2

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 23-Wake Up 2**

**Darry POV.**

We had mad it to California early the next morning. Dally and Two-bit wanted to find a hotel and nap, but I somehow convinced them to come with me to the fire wreckage. All we had to do was follow the numerous police and ambulance cars in the one we had rented. It got so traffic jammed at one point; I thought that we weren't going to ever move. They wouldn't let any civilian cars through to the actual scene of wreckage, only cops, ambulance, fir trucks, and reporters, but they did let us into a safe parking lot that overlooked the place that caught fire. I parked in the closet space possible and got out. I was stunned at what I saw. Small amounts of smoke were coming off the severely burned walls. There was a large scorch piece of land that had probably been the drug lord's field. In one particular section of burned building, several firefighters and police man were walking around and pulling up large black things. Oh god, were those children. They looked way too black to be alive. A short way away from the dead kid search section were piles and piles of body bags. Full body bags. What kind of sick monster was this? On the other side was a long row of stretchers filled with kids who were still alive. As I watched, police took more and more kids over to stretchers as ambulances came and dropped off supplies and picked up living children. There seemed to be a large number of living children, which relieved me a bit. Maybe Pony and Soda had survived it. I turned around to get back in the car and ran into Dally. I hadn't heard him and Two-bit get out of the car.

"Their down there in the stretchers man," Dally told me, "I just know it. Now could we please get to a hotel? I didn't get any sleep back in Tulsa, too much going on. Didn't get sleep on the plane. Two-bit wouldn't shut the hell up. I haven't had any sleep in at least 36 hours. Please let us sleep." I grinned at his antics and nodded. He let out a relieved whoop and ran to the car. I grinned again and got into the driver's seat.

"Hey Darry, could I drive?" Two-bit slurred from the back seat. He was so tired he sounded drunk. Or maybe he was. I wasn't paying attention to what he had drunk on the plane. I drove around San Jose and looked for a cheap but decent hotel. It was called the Twinkle Star Bed and Breakfast. The outside of the hotel looked comfy enough. It was painted yellow with midnight blue trimmings. I pulled into the parking lot and Dally and Two-bit got out of the car before I had even stopped. The walk into the front office was silent as we thought about what we had seen. The moment I stepped into the office, I regretted my decision on the hotel. The entire room was decorated in cats. Not just any cats. Old lady type cats. Everything was pink. And girly. Why the hell had the owners picked the name Twinkle Star. Maybe the rooms were decorated in stars or something. It was so deceiving. A old lady hobbled out into the room.

"Oh, customers. Delightful. Haven't had one in years." I was reminded of that story we had read in high school. The Landlady. The one were she kills her customers. Warily, I followed her to the check in counter. It was covered in doilies. Wonderful. She produced a check-in book. Just to make sure, I searched all the names there too see if I recognized them from newspapers. Nope, none of them so I took the pen from her hand and checked in. After I had paid her for the night, she led me and the boys down to room 3. My prediction about the rooms being true to the name of the hotel turned out wrong. The room was pink also. I guy kinda lost his masculinity in this place. The two beds were hot pink and matched the sofa. There were doilies all over the place and pictures of cats hung everywhere.

"Damn." Dally breathed. "This really taking a hit on my masculinity. So I wasn't the only one who thought so. Two-bit walked over to the bed and sat down gingerly on the corner of the pink blanket. I knew how he was feeling. I walked over to the empty bed and lay down. It was comfy, but so….pink. Even the ceiling was pink. Ugh. Dally claimed the couch and I had to feel for him. Not only had I dragged him out here to San Jose, but I had also put him in a incredibly pink room. He probably thought I was the worst right now. I would have to make sure that Two-bit kept his trap shut about Dally staying in a pink room. If that got out, Dally would never live it down. Tulsa's

tuffest Greaser sleeping in a pink room. I drifted off to sleep, imagining the rep he would get for that.

**Johnny POV. **

The nurse who came into my room after I woke up told me I had been out for two days. All I remember was the fire. What had happened before that was a total mystery to me. My arm was in a cast and the nurse wouldn't let me take my oxygen mask off. I had tried to ask if Angela, Steve, Soda, and Ponyboy were okay, but she had told me that they were trying to identify the kids' right know. Only those who had a billfold on them were known right now. She asked me a lot of questions.

"Full name?"

"Jonathan William Cade."

"Age?"

"15"** (A/N: Just for this story.) **

"Date of Birth?"

"March 12th, 1953."

"Place of Residence?"

"1209 Wilmer Street Tulsa, Oklahoma." She gave me a funny look

"Do you have allergies?"

"Not that I know of."

"Okay, that's all I need to know. Just lay back and rest until the doctor comes." She left without another room. There were three other kids in the room and only one other who was awake and watching me. It was some boy younger than me, seven maybe, and he had a bandage on his head.

"Hey, are you one of the fire victims?" I nodded. I didn't really like talking to people, whether I knew them or not.

"Oh me too. That guy had kidnapped me and then set the room on fire; I guessed he was referring to Moorland.

"Did you really come from Oklahoma?" I nodded shyly again.

"Oh. Not me, I was kidnapped from Brooklyn. Right outside of my home. That kid named Bobby said we had been in there for a year but I think it was longer. I was five when I was kidnapped." I nodded and decided to speak for myself, I mean, it was a kid obviously looking for someone to talk to, and no one was in the room to witness it except me and the kid.

"Well, your parents will be happy to see you." He shook his head.

"It was just my mommy and me. She's really protective of me. Hates when I get into trouble. I wasn't even supposed to be outside, and, and then he-he," He paused as his eyes began to water. 'He just grabbed me. I was right outside my house, and he took me. I want to see mommy again. Tell her I'm sorry." I nodded. I wished I had parents who cared about me. The only time my parents paid attention to me was when they were beating or yelling at me. This kid reminded me of Pony. I mean, Pony didn't have his mother anymore, but his older brothers were extremely protective of him, hated it when he didn't use his head and got in trouble. I laid back down as a doctor wearing glasses marched back into the room and came over to me.

**Ponyboy POV**.

I felt myself being poked and prodded, but forced my eyes to remain closed. The back of my head hurt like crazy and I couldn't remember why. In fact, I couldn't remember where I was or who I was. Who was I? I sank back into darkness and when I came to again, it was a bit warmer. I had something on my face, giving me fresh, clean oxygen. I heard some nurses talking to a boy in the same room as me. His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place were I had heard it before. I listened in on the conversation.

"Could you tell me what your name is?"  
"Yeah, Sodapop Patrick Curtis."

"How old are you?"

"16 ma'am."

"Date of Birth?"

"October 8th, 1952."

"Where do you live?"

"Tulsa, Oklahoma." Both the name and place sounded so familiar.

"Do you have allergies?"

"Yeah, to avocado and dogs."

"You said you know this boy's name?"

"Yeah, he's my brother."

"Can you tell me his name?"

"Ponyboy Michael Curtis." Another familiar name. I must have heard it somewhere before.

"How old is he?"

"14"

"Date of Birth."

"July 23rd, 1954."

"He also lives in Tulsa?"

"Yeah."

"Does he have any allergies that you know of?"

"He can't eat broccoli."

She stopped asking questions and all was silent except for the beeps of machine. My head so bad, I thought that I would burst from the pain. I turned my head so that it wasn't on the painful part and the boy's voice spoke again.

"Pony? Pony, you awake?" Who the hell was he talking to? I felt sleep tugging at my painful head, so I gratefully accepted. The boy was babbling but I had stopped listening and was falling asleep.

**End Of Chapter! Sorry it was so long. To answer your question spicygurl: No. I don't hate Angela but I don't really favor her. I like Sodapop better. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	24. Amnesia

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 25-Amnesia**

**Ponyboy POV.**

I kept coming in and out of consciousness, never staying awake for more than five minuets. That boy kept calling for Ponyboy. What an odd name. I hoped he would find him soon. I just I could remember who I was. Or why I was evidently in a hospital. I finally managed to stay awake for more than a few minuets and opened my eyes. It was white. Everything was white. The ceiling, the walls, my sheets. It gave me a headache, which added to the pain from the back of the head. I had several needles in my arm, which made me shiver, and someone had done the liberty of taking that wretched mask off. I heard beeping and looked up. I had one of those heart monitor things hooked up to me.

"Ponyboy?" I turned and there was the boy I had heard so often. Coca-cola or something like that. Another odd name. He was handsome, like movie handsome, I could have sworn I had seen him before, like ion a movie or something and he was looking at me, grinning. Wait, was I supposed to be Ponyboy? No, I think I would remember if that were so. He spoke.

"Hey Pony, your finally awake." He was talking to me. _This boy is mental_ I said to myself. Might as well play along, it would might him if I didn't. I nodded and he grinned even harder. I couldn't help but grin back. A thought occurred to me. What if he knew how I had been injured?

"Hey, could you tell me what happened?" He nodded

"We had been kidnapped and brought up here to San Jose. By our kidnapper, Mr. Moorland. Then he set the room on fire and a piece of ceiling hit you in the back of the head." He laughed. "The doctor said you would probably have memory loss, were it hit and all, but you look fine to me." My gut turned cold. Amnesia. That was why I couldn't remember anything. This boy had been calling me Ponyboy. He had said earlier that I was his brother. I should tell him.

"Wait, I need to tell you some-" I was cut off when the door burst open. A big man. Bigger than me and Coca-cola, strode into the room. Behind him a smaller blonde haired guy and a guy with russet colored side-burns followed. They come over to mine and Coca-cola's bed. I honestly had no clue who these people were and they were beginning to scare me. I was about to call for a nurse when Coca-cola started talking to them.

"Darry. You came back for me!" He shouted in mock happiness.

"Yeah, yeah little buddy. How's the leg doing? You getting any sleep?" This guy sounded like a concerned dad, but was clearly too young to be our father. Who was this Darry?

"Yeah, guess who's awake?" Coca-cola said, pointing to me. All three of the guy's stares concentrated on me. I squirmed uncomfortably. I still had no clue who this Darry guy was and didn't even know the other two's name. The Darry guy came over to my side and grinned.

"Oh, Pony, thank god. I thought you were never going to wake up." It was obviously someone I had known before the fire. I nodded. If I said something, I might give myself away. I pretended to yawn, maybe if I go to sleep, they'll go away. After a few minuets of making it look like I had to go to sleep, Darry got the picture and went back over to Coca-cola. I closed my eyes and waited them out. After a while the nurse came and made the guys go away.

"Are they gone?" I whispered to Coca-cola. He looked up, surprised. He must of thought I was actually asleep too.

"Pony? I thought you were asleep. How come you wanted them gone?" Here came the hard part.

"Look Coca-cola I have something-" I was stopped short by his extreme questioning look.

"Pony, my name isn't Coca-cola. What's wrong?" Oh crap. I had been sure that was what the nurse had called him. I knew it had something to do with a fizzy drink.

"That's my point. I don't know your name. Hell, I don't even know _my_ name." I whisper yelled to what's-his-name. He looked confused.

"Whatdya mean Pony?" I sighed.

"You know how the doctor said that I might have memory loss when I woke up?" He nodded, still not catching on.

"Well, I think he was right. I can't remember anything. Not what happened to me, not where I was before." Coca-cola was silent for a while before he called a nurse.

"Um, I think Pony needs to be tested by a doctor. H says he can't remember what happened to him or who he is." He wouldn't look at me, just pointed in my direction. He had been all friendly before, now he was ignoring me? Why did the fact that I had amnesia cause him to act like this? I felt my eyes tear up a little but I didn't know why. The nurse came over to me and checked all of my machines and left, not saying a word to me. Did people not like people who had amnesia? I turned away from Coca-cola. A tall doctor wearing glasses walked into the room and checked all the sleeping patients before coming over to Coca-cola's and my side of the room. He talked shortly with Coca-cola, both using hushed tones so I couldn't hear, before coming over to my side.

"Well young man, your brother seems to think that you have amnesia. If you could just follow me, that would be great. I was about to when a felt several painful tugs on my arm and realized I still had needles connected to my arm.

"Uh, I can't. I'm still connected to the IV bags." I told him slowly. The doctor smiled and told me apologetically,

"Ah, sorry. Completely forgot. I'm always doing that." For some reason, that didn't make me feel much better. He came back over and started doing my needles. I closed my eyes, only wincing when he tore off the extremely sticky medical tape. I looked over at Coca-cola again. He was watching me and the doctor. When he saw I was looking, he quickly turned again. I just didn't get it. I mean, what was wrong. I shook my head and followed the chatting doctor out of the room. He talked all the way to the examination room and I just listened. I was desperately trying to remember one little thing from before. Anything I begged myself. I wasn't getting anything so I just gave up and turned my attention to the doctor.

"And that's how we found out I couldn't eat asparagus after midnight." What the hell had he been talking about.

"Alrighty then, let's begin, shall we? Could you tell me your name?"

"Ponyboy."

"Very good. How do you know this?"

"My brother kept calling me that."

"Oh. Could you tell me your brother's name?"

I shook my head.

"What about your oldest brother?"

I had another brother? I shook my head again.

"How old are you."

"I don't know."

"Do you remember anything that happened before you arrived here? What caused you to be in the hospital?"

"My brother mentioned kidnapping and a fire." He nodded and began to rapidly write stuff on a clipboard. I sat there for about ten minuets while he wrote without pause. The back of my head was killing me.

"Okay, you have a normal case amnesia." Normal Case? What the hell was a normal case of amnesia? What kind of freaking doctor was this?

"Sir, if I may ask, but how can a case of amnesia be normal?" I asked as politely as I could. I was beginning not to like this doctor. He chuckled .

"Well, it means you have a common case of amnesia." This doctor is an idiot I thought to myself. How the hell did he become a doctor? He continued to babble on and on about the cures for amnesia while I thought about the probability of getting a different doctor. Probably not a high one, I thought to myself for no particular reason. The doctor jolted me from my thoughts.

"So, we're going to start you on your medication tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I think you should be getting back to your room while I tell your guardian of your predicament." My guardian? Didn't I have parents? I would have to ask Coca-cola about it back in the room. Only if he is willing to talk to you I told myself, remembering how he had refused to look at me. I sighed and got out of my chair, ready to return to the hospital room.

Soda POV.

I felt bad about not looking at Pony, honest. But after he had told me he couldn't remember anything and called me 'Coca-cola', I had felt terrible. I mean, there wasn't any way I could have stopped the ceiling from dropping crap on Pony, but He was my youngest brother and I was supposed to be taking care of him while we were kidnapped. Now he couldn't remember a damn thing. I felt hideous and wouldn't even look at him. I couldn't bear to, knowing I should have protected him. I felt tears coming to my eyes as he left the room. The doctor and Pony were gone for a while so I had plenty of time to think. I would have to tell Darry about this. Darry! No wonder Pony had refused to talk to Darry while he was in here. He didn't now who he was! Poor Darry had thought that Pony was mad at him. Why, I had no idea, but he just knew that Darry had been all mushy when Ponyboy had fallen asleep without so much as a hi. Well, won't Darry be happy? I still felt like crap. Pony eventually came back and got into bed without looking at me. Well, he wasn't getting out it that easy. I still needed to talk to him.

"Hey Pony, can I talk to you for a minuet?" He looked at me, surprised that I was talking to him.

"Sure."

"How did the doctor visit go?" Shouldn't get too ahead of myself.

"Fine. He diagnosed me with common long term memory loss." Goody.

"Hey, I just wanted to apologize." He looked surprised again.

"For what?"

"I should have been watching your back. Now you can't remember anything."

"But didn't you say we had been kidnapped?"

"Yeah."

"And then the room we were being kept in was lit on fire?"

"Yes."

"How were you supposed to keep me safe. Especially from a fire?" The forgetful kid a point. Maybe I was over thinking it too much.

"Hey Coca-cola." It still upset me that he didn't know my name.

"It's Sodapop."

"Oh. I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Why do we have a guardian and not parents." One of the first questions he asks me and it has to be about mom and dad.

"Well, Pony, Mom and Dad were in a car crash a few months ago. They both died immediately. Train coming at them was going pretty fast." I saw tears come to his eyes. Oh crap, not this again. It had taken forever to stop crying the last time the news had been delivered. If he started then I would start. I quickly began to talk so he wouldn't think about it.

"Yeah, but we have an awesome guardian now. It's Darry, the boy who had come in here before. The big one." It worked, he was momentarily distracted and questioning me again.

"Who were those boys with him. The mean looking blonde and the funny side-burns guy?" I couldn't help but laugh at his descriptions of Two-bit and Dally.

"That was Two-bit and Dally. There part of our gang." Pony looked alarmed.

"What gang?" I laughed again.

"Our Greaser gang. You're a Greaser you know. I am too. We hate Socs, the west side rich kids." He looked interested. I continued on to tell him about the rest of the gang.

"Yeah, there's Johnny and Steve too. Johnny is your best friend and the quietest of the whole gang and Steve is my best bud." I left off the part about Steve semi-hating Ponyboy. Maybe I could cure there differences with this.

"Oh, where are Steve and Johnny?"

"They were in the fire too, I've been told that they're recovering nicely." That was the truth. Johnny only had a broken arm along with some scraps and bruises and Steve was healing from broken ribs, sprained ankle and broke wrist. Nothing too bad. Both had several burns, along with me and Pony, but that was bound to happen when you were trapped in a burning room. Pony was wincing as he rubbed the back of his head. I saw him moving the white bandages around his head and moved to stop him.

"Whoa there, you're going to rub the bandage off. The doc says you took a pretty bad hit to the head with that piece of ceiling. Lucky for you it wasn't on fire." The doctor had told me while Pony was asleep that Pony was going to be pretty sore when he woke up. His probably hurt a lot. I was about top ask him if he wanted me to call the nurse for medicine when the door burst open and Dally walked in.

**Thank you to all those who have reviewed me, FYI, I've fixed some errors last chapter. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	25. The Others

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 25-The Others**

**Darry POV.**

We had been talking to the nurse in charge when a doctor strode up to us, pushing up to the nurse.

"Ingrid, could get Darrel Curtis for me when you have time. I have his brother's test result in." Which brother. Soda was just fine, a minor injury on the leg, and Pony was asleep. Who had they tested? I grabbed the guys shoulder.

"Hey, I'm Darrel Curtis. What news do you have about my brothers?" I saw the doctor cringe away. I knew using the scare tactic was wrong, but I was a concerned older brother, I had the right.

"Um, well, y-yes. I've just finished testing Ponyboy, and have just confirmed that he has long-term memory loss, or amnesia. He will be starting pills tomorrow to regain his memories." he said, adjusting his glasses. Pony had just been tested. But he was sound asleep when I left. More importantly, he had lost his memory. I felt my jaw drop. The doctor had said that that was a possibility, but I didn't think it was actually going to happen. Pony had been hit in the head with a piece of falling ceiling, according to Soda.

"Well, can we see him, or is he asleep again?" Two-bit asked from my right. The doctor shook his head.

"No, he's not, you can go right in." The nurse tried to protest.

"But sir, it's after visiting hours." The doc gave the nurse a warning look.

"Ingrid, this specific patient has amnesia. We need this man to help his little brother through his problem." The nurse frowned and mumbled something under breath, but led us back to Pony's room. Halfway there she suddenly had to take care of a problem in the girls ward and told us to hold on. There was a group of girls huddling close together and they were pointing and giggling at Dally. How the hell did they know Dally. One brunette from the pack strayed over to were we were. Two-bit took interest in the girl.

"Hey baby, little far from the pack aren't you?" Two-bit asked smoothly. Or what _he_ thought was smooth."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to this guy." She said, pointing to Dally. All three of us looked at Dally.

"What?"

"We wanted you to give The King our condolences about the fire. Is he okay? Make sure you tell him to get better soon" Was she asking Dally to give Elvis condolences. And if he was okay? I was giving Dally the ultimate questioning look.

"Oh, and good job teaching him your moves. He's so awesome!" She walked back to the giggling girls. What the hell? Dally saw we were looking at him and shrugged, The nurse came back, huffier than before.

"Damned giggly girls." She muttered, shooting a glare at the nearby pack.

"Well come on boys. It's after visiting hours and your boys will be asleep if we don't hurry." She ushered us down the quiet hallway. It was quieter than before, when parents had been flowing in and out of the halls. We finally made it to my brothers' doors. Before I could stop him, Dally burst through them. The nurse gave an angry squawk and ran in after him, me and Two-bit close behind. Soda was looking at us with a grin but Pony, Pony looked like he was ready to piss himself. I had to snicker to myself. I know it was the wrong thing to do and all, but the look on his face was priceless. Then I remembered that he had no memory and my grin slid away from my face.

"Guys, you will never believe what just happened!"

"You actually knocked on a door instead of plowing right through it?" Soda asked with a grin. Dally gave him a mock glare. He seemed to be in a good mood.

"Nope. Some broad just came up to me and thanked me for teaching The King his moves. She said to tell him sorry about the fire and to get better soon. Can you believe that chick? She must be outta her mind! Teaching The King my moves. Ha!" Soda looked thoughtful for a minuet and then looked at Pony before laughing so hard his heart monitor went haywire. Was I missing something? Pony looked at Soda confused.

"Dally taught Elvis his moves?" I was about to laugh along when something hit me. Ponyboy had just identified Dally. I thought he had memory loss.

"Hey Pony, I thought you couldn't remember anything." Two-bit said before I could.

"I can't."

"Then how did you know who Dally was?"

"Coca-cola told me." Who was Coca-cola? Soda leaned towards Pony.

"It's Sodapop."

"Oh, right." So Soda had already been teaching Pony things about his forgotten life? I shook my head and walked over to Pony's bed.

"So, I heard you had amnesia." It felt and sounded stupid, but I wanted to take a soft entrance to this subject. Pony only nodded. Was he still not talking to me.

"Do you know who I am?" Two-bit half yelled, ignoring the fact that was talking to Pony. Pony nodded.

"Your Two-bit."

"The one and only!" I gave Two-bit a glare, which he again ignored as he ran over to Pony's bed.

"What else has Coca-cola told you about your life?" What was with the whole 'Coca-cola' thing? Pony was busy answering Two-bits questions.

"He told me I was a greaser." Dally nodded in agreement.

"Good, good. Now, who do we Greasers hate?" Two-bit used his best teacher voice, as if he were teaching Pony about the life styles of the Greasers. I sighed again, I was never going to talk to my baby brother. I sat as Two-bit and Pony talked back and forth. I had almost fallen asleep when I heard Two-bit stop talking. My eyes shot open. Two-bit was sitting on the couch close to Soda's bed and was snoozing. In fact, everybody was asleep. I thought to myself as I looked around the room. And then I saw the green eyes focusing on me. Correction, I thought, everybody but Pony is asleep. Good, now was my chance to talk to him. I moved to the closet chair to the bed.

"Hey Pony, haven't got a chance to talk to you all night. How you feeling?" I asked in a low voice. I was afraid if I talked too loud, I would wake up the rest of the gang and lose my chance to talk to Pony. I didn't know if he would actually talk to me or not, so I was surprised when he did.

"Fine. Head hurts." I nodded. I didn't doubt his head hurt.

"Is there anything I can get for you?" I decided I wouldn't mention the whole amnesia thing yet. I still didn't know how he was dealing with it. He nodded.

"Could you help me up. I want to walk." I looked at the clock above him. 11:30 pm. Where the hell could he want to go? I shrugged and began to help him up. I knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but this was the first time I had gotten to talk to my brother in two months. If he wanted to walk, let the boy walk. It wasn't like I was going to let him go by himself. I was most definatley going with him. It took him a little while to get steady, but when he was, he was ready to go. We both left the room in silence. I waited till we were far enough away from the room to speak out loud.

"Where are we going?" Pony jumped, as if he was surprised I was there.

"Coca-cola said that I had a best friend who was here. Johnny Cade, I think." So Soda had told him about the rest of the gang. That was good. For some odd reason, we weren't stopped in the halls by any of the passing nurses. I didn't know where Johnny's room was, I had been too set on seeing my brothers to ask earlier, and I didn't think Pony did either. Where was he leading us? Turns out he was leading us to the nurses' station. The overnight nurse, some old woman who was reading a book, hardly looked at us when we came up. Pony spoke first.

"Can we have the room that Johnny Cade is staying in?" The nurse looked up from her book.

"Aren't you a patient here?" I was about to explain but Pony got to her first.

"Yeah, but I lost my way. All I know is that I was sharing a room with Johnny Cade. Could you tell me his room number." The nurse nodded and began looking through several files. Where Pony learned to lie that smooth and quick, I would like to know. I wonder how many times he had lied to me. The nurse looked back up.

"We have a Jonathan Cade on file. Is that who your looking for?" Ponyboy looked to me for confirmation. I nodded to him.

"Yeah, What's the room number?" The nurse looked at the file again.

"324, boys' side." She pointed down we had just came out of. We nodded and Pony thanked her before walking back into the darkened hallway. I followed at a slower pace. I was a little upset me and Pony had yet to have a talk about what was going on, but I didn't want to push it and he hadn't brought it up yet. Maybe I should just talk to him. I was so busy thinking, I almost ran into Pony, who had stopped outside a door and was peeking in. I looked at the room number posted outside the room. 324. Guess we had made it. I looked over Pony's head and into the room. It looked just like his did. I spotted Johnny right away. He was the only one awake in the whole room and it looked like he was reading. I didn't know Johnny read for pleasure. Pony walked into the room first. Johnny looked up from his book when he heard Pony's bare feet hit the floor. He grinned.

"Hey Pony. First visitor I've had all day. How are you doing." I guess nobody had bothered to come see Johnny. I felt kinda bad. I had been here all day. I could've gone to see him. I guess he didn't know Pony had Amnesia either. I'd have to warn him. Pony walked over to Johnny's bedside chair and sat down without a word. Johnny noticed me in the doorway and gave me a questioning look. I returned it with a apologetic look.

"Hey Pony, you okay?" Johnny asked. Pony then spoke.

"Yeah. Coca-cola told me you were here so I thought I would come and say hi." Wonder why he didn't mention the fact that he didn't know Johnny anymore.

"Who's Coca-cola?" Johnny asked both me and Pony.

"He means Sodapop." I answered for Ponyboy. "Pony, shouldn't you tell him about your little 'issue'?" This would be the first time I had brought it up. Pony actually didn't react like I thought he would. He just look at me like was crazy. I pointed to my head. Pony got it and turned back to Johnny.

"Oh yeah, I have amnesia and don't remember anything from the past." I was amazed at how he had said it. Like it was an everyday thing that someone forgets everything he once knew so well. Johnny's jaw dropped open. That had been my reaction to. Pony was staring at Pony as if he was an alien or something. Pony seemed to be interested in other things such as his nails. I could see by the red tinge to his ears that he was embarrassed. I stepped into the room to intervene.

"You okay Johnny?" It worked. He snapped his stare off of Pony and focused in on me.

"Yeah, it's just, well I mean, how could Pony lose his memory?" Easy I thought. He just got whacked in the head really hard. Pony was still concentrating on his nails.

"Well, Soda did say he got hit in the head. The doctor told me he would be put on memory pills to help him get his memory back."

"So he can get his memory back?"

"Yeah."

"How is he doing." Pony looked up, and angry expression on his face.

"You know, you could just ask me! I am sitting right here!" He yelled the last part and woke up a young kid on the opposite side of the room.

"Mommy?" He said, wiping sleep out of his eyes.

"No. Just a loud person. Go back to sleep." I had never known Johnny to talk to a total stranger, even if it was a young kid." I looked over at pony, who was glaring at the floor after his angry outburst. I was about to walk over to him when he suddenly got up and walked to the door.

"I'm ready to go back." I wasn't completely sure what had made him angry. Was it really about Johnny not asking him how he was, talking like he wasn't there. I didn't think so. I said a quick goodbye to Johnny and ran down the hall after Pony. I caught up to him three rooms later.

"What the hell was that about?" Pony stopped and whirled around to face me.

"You were both ignoring me."

"That's no reason to yell when most the kids in the room were asleep!"

What right do you have to yell at me. You have no idea how I'm feeling right now." He had a point. I had no idea what it was like to not have my memory, but that was no reason to yell at me.

"That does not excuse your behavior!"

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" I tried to keep my anger in check. He didn't remember me. He had no clue who I was.

"I'm your older brother and your legal guardian. And I say yelling at your friend like that was rude.. You should go apologize." I was treating him like a five year old. He used to hate that and by the look on his face, he still did.

"Don't treat me like a little kid. I'm not going back there!" With that he stomped on down the hall back towards his room. Crap, I thought. Your first night with him talking to you and you have a freaking argument. What the hell is wrong with us? I ran after him again and stopped him.

"Look, Ponyboy, I know you don't remember anything and I'm sorry about that okay. But that is not going to excuse you being rude to your friends. Would you please apologize to Johnny tomorrow morning?" Right now I wanted get him to his room so he could go back to sleep. It was getting late and I knew the night nurse would be making rounds soon. We walked back to the room in silence. The first thing that tipped me off that something was wrong, was when we got back to the room, the light was on and sound was coming out of it. I ran into the room, ready to take on whatever was coming. The boys were up and running around the room, looking in closets, the bathroom, and under beds. They seemed to be searching for something. They had woken up the other kids.

"Guys, what are you doing?" I practically yelled and everyone stopped in their tracks. Soda, who was still trapped in bed said,

"Oh Darry, thank god. Ponyboy is missing. Have you seen him?" I could've laughed.

"Yeah, me and him went for a little walk, that's all." Ponyboy come in behind me, confused by all the commotion. Two-bit and Dally came back into the room, they'd been in the bathroom searching for Ponyboy.

"Oh god, there he is. Where have you been kid, we were looking all over for you." Pony shrugged and climbed into bed. Way to end a conversation Pony. Dally glared at Pony but didn't say anything. He just stalked back over to his chair and sat down to fall asleep. Guess he was tired from going all over the place today. Sitting by Soda's bed, I closed my eyes and almost begged for sleep to take me.

**Really long Chapter, so sorry, but lots happened. I'm enjoying all the reviews so keep them coming! Chapter 26 coming up soon. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	26. Accidents

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 26-Accidents**

**Angela POV.**

After the whole fire episode I was taken to a children's hospital. I had demanded to be put up in the real hospital, where everyone else was going, but the nurse taking care of me said no.

"Only the fire victims are allowed up there right now. You only have a few burns your fine." She said as she struggled to get hooked up to an IV. I certainly wasn't making it easy for her. How dare they tell me I wasn't important enough to go to the big hospital? The nurse finally gave up and left the room muttering under her breath. I looked around the room. It was definatley a children's hospital room. It was decorated in light pink and cartoon characters. How fricking adorable. Lord, I prayed. Can you please send me to the other hospital? I need to make sure Pony is okay. And the others I added as an after thought. I should really watch what I pray for. The nurse must have put my medication into the IV because soon I was feeling sleepy. Pretty soon I couldn't even hold my eyes open. Well, if you can't beat em, Join em. I was beginning to fall asleep when a balding doctor came into my room. He was holding a clipboard and a needle. What did I need now? He began to speak.

"Well Miss. Williamston. Your test for the hip replacement came back. It appears were going to have to start you on Lovenox." Miss Williamston? Hip replacement? Lovenox? This doctor obviously had the wrong girl. I woke up right away.

"Um, sir, I'm not Miss. Williamston." The doctor looked at me and grinned.

"Of course not Margi. Who are you now? Annie Marksman. Girls and their imagination." I didn't know what hell he was talking about, but I did know that if he took another step closer with that needle, he would no longer have a hand to hold that needle. I tried again.

"Sir, my name is Angela Shepard, and I am telling you, I don't need a hip replacement." I was even being polite. The doctor laughed.

"Margi, how many times do me and your parents have to tell you? Pretending to be someone else is not going to change the fact that you needed your hip replaced. It's over anyway. Now all you have to do is take the medicine. How many times are your parents going to have to tell you that?" Okay, Dr. Shit-for-brains obviously wasn't getting it. Looks like it was time to take the Tim and Curly approach to this. I grabbed the idiot by his fancy white collar and pulled him close.

"And how many times am _I_ going to have to tell _you_ that I'm not fucking Margi Williamston. Or would you rather me beat it into you skull?" Okay, I have to admit, that was a bit harsh but he was a moron. If this was the only way to get him to listen, so be it. I released him and he immediately backed up. I put on my best greaser face and stared him down. He was such a Soc. He ran from the room as if Satan himself were chasing him. _Good,_ I thought, _and stay out_. I knew he would come back with reinforcements, but I would be ready for him. I carefully took the IV out of my arm and got out of bed. The IV wasn't helping anyway, just making me sleepy. I sat on the edge of the bed, adrenaline the only thing keeping me awake. As I predicted the moron came back with three nurses. Bring it on. I grabbed the metal IV rack and held it in a defensive stance. I honestly don't know what came over me. I knew I didn't want to get that needle in me though. No telling what it would to me. The nurses stared at me, astonished a girl was threatening them as such. One of the nurses, a blonde broad, stepped forward to try and stop me.

"Miss Williamston, we understand you're scared right now, but we're only trying to help. This shot won't hurt you." She said in a bubble-gum little girl voice. Puh-lease. As if I didn't run into 'innocent' girls like her every day. She wasn't fooling anyone.

"One more step and you lose your head." I responded in my best growl. It was pretty good. The Blondie backed up. Good, my scare tactic was working. I saw the nurse exchange a glance behind the doctor, who was trying, but failing, to put on his best brave face. I didn't have anytime to react when the 'ladies' ran at me. What the hell? They grabbed me and slammed me back into the bed. I felt one grabbing my right wrist and tried to fight her off. The doctor took a needle out of his pocket and took of it's cap. Oh crap, I couldn't fight him off with three bimbos on me. I struggled but it did no good. They were pretty strong. I felt the doctor stab the needle into my arm and screamed as the liquid inside empty into my veins. What the hell was Lovenox? Acid? It burned like crazy. I felt the nurses get off of me. I tried to get up but couldn't move. I soon identified the problem. One of the girls had put a restraint cuff on my wrist so I couldn't get up from the bed. If they thought they were going to keep me down this way, they were nuts. I struggled and struggled, refusing to give up while the doctor smiled.

"See Margi, that wasn't so bad. Now, you may want to calm down. You parents will be here any moment." Not so bad my ass. It still stung like lemon on a fresh wound. The doctor and nurses left. The stupid restraint had a lock on it. I had managed to turn the bed upside down and was half dragging it/half carrying it when the door opened again. This time it showed two people. A dark-haired woman and a brunette man. They both looked at, who was on the floor, in shock. Guess they were Margi's parents.

"You aren't Margi." The woman said in shock. No duh lady.

"Well don't tell the doctor that. He's pretty set to believe I am. Little help please?" The woman turned to her speechless husband. Finally, someone smart.

"Phil, go and find a nurse. Tell her we need help." The lady turned as her husband turned to me and walked over to me.

"Didn't you tell Doctor Sands you weren't our Margi?" She asked as she began to flip the bed back over.

"I did. The idiot wouldn't believe me. He gave me a shot of Lovenox, something for a hip replacement." The lady nodded.

"Yes, Margi was supposed to start that today. All I know is that it's a blood thinner. Your probably going to need to get checked by the ER people." She said as I sat on the now upright bed. I nodded as the man came running in with a nurse. It was the blonde bimbo. Goody.

"Is there a problem with your daughter Mr. and Mrs. Williamston?" She asked in a bored voice. I really didn't like her.

"Yes, this isn't our daughter." Mrs. Williamston said pleasantly. The blonde bimbo smiled sweetly.

"What are you talking about? Doctor Sands said she was."

"I'm talking about the fact that this is not my daughter. I would appreciate it if you would get Dr. Sands for me." Mrs. Williamston said it in a tone that could be polite but had a clear message beneath it. 'Don't mess with me bitch'. Good, I smiled. I hoped someone would put the nasty woman in her place. The bimbo lost her smile and left her room in a huff. Mrs. Williamston turned to me.

"I'm really sorry about all of this. You don't have any heart conditions do you? My husband works here in San Jose as a doctor, he could help." The husband came up, hearing his name. H began to ask me all sorts of medical questions.

"Do you know what was given to you?"

"Lovenox."

"How long ago?"

"Maybe and hour." He nodded, getting into full question mode now.

"Have you do you have any heart problems?"

"Not that I know of."

"Are you currently feeling any chest pains?" Now that he mentioned it….

"Small ones, kind of dull though." It was true. My heart was suddenly giving off dull but noticeable throbs. They weren't bad. The man nodded again.

"We should get her help immediately. No telling how she could react to the blood thinner. I'll be right back Becky, I'm going to go and get a nurse again." Mrs. Williamston nodded and came to sit by me.

"So, what has landed you here?" Might as well talk to her. It might keep my mind off my chest pains.

"Have you heard about those kidnappings happening all over the country?" She nodded.

"Well I was one of them. Don't know how long I was in there. Anyway, the man who kidnapped us lit the room we were in on fire. I was one of the lucky ones." The woman looked flabbergasted. I'm sure it wasn't every day she stumbled upon a kidnapped fire victim.

"Well I'm sorry dear. I hear that they are packed up in San Jose Mercy Hospital. Our daughter got moved here because of it. They wanted my husband to come in today, but he would have no part of it. It is his off day. Have you contacted your family yet?" I shook my head.

"I haven't had a chance to get out of this room." Mostly because of that idiot doctor, whom I was so suing when I got back to Tulsa, I didn't care where I got the money. The man came back with stretcher and two nurses I had not yet seen. They carefully loaded me up and re-attached my EKG machine which had come detached during my attempted escape. It was going a bit faster than it had been before, which made me worry. The nurses and doctor wheeled me down the hallway and through a door marked ER. Was I being put into surgery now? No, I was being wheeled out a pair of doors and into the cool night air. Huh? I looked around. I was outside. But why? My unspoken question was soon answered by a siren coming very close o me. It gave me a super huge headache as the blaring truck parked right in front of me. Where were they sending me? I saw the name on the side of the truck. San Jose Mercy Hospital. Part of me cheered while the other grimaced. It was good that I was finally being sent to the place my beloved ex-boyfriend was, but for the wrong reason. I didn't want to have to be sent there because it an emergency, I wanted to go on my own. The doors to the ambulance burst open and four doctors got out. I noticed one of them was really cute. They lifted me up and put me in the loud truck. This didn't help my headache. I bent my head forward to try and see Mr. and Mrs. Williamston one last time. They were both heading back into the hospital with the nurses. Maybe they could find their daughter now. The doors slammed shut and the doctors began to work while the truck started to move. The cute one was talking to me in a low pretty voice, telling me everything was going to be fine. I grinned at him Wait, my mind said. Your loyal to Pony, remember? My brain was right. If I was ever going to get back with Pony, which I was, then I had to be faithful. I turned away from Dr. Cutie and looked at what the other doctors were doing. One was taking my blood pressure while the other hooked me up to an IV machine. I had had about enough of those things. My heart pains had gotten worse and my heart monitor was going haywire trying to keep up with my pulse. It was sending an odd amount of blood to my head and I was ready to pass out. I concentrated on the doctors voices.

"We're almost there. Make sure she gets to an ER room immediately. We're going to have to put her on the machine."

"Her heartbeat is rising. Try to stabilize her." What did stabilize mean? Whatever it meant, I hoped it would stop the chest pains. We had been moving at a pretty fast pace in the ambulance when suddenly the brakes were slammed on. Not knowing the driver was going to do that, and not being strapped to the stretcher or anything, I fell on the floor. It was even worse because I still had a needle in my arm, which pulled out painfully, and a heart monitor on. The doctors helped me back up to the bed.

"Sorry about that. Our driver often does that." The cute one said. I turned away from him again. Think of Pony. Think of Pony. Think of Pony. As soon as I saw him again, I could be his boyfriend. This would be worth it. The back doors opened to reveal a haughty looking nurse. Great, another one.

"Just what do you think your doing? This hospital is reserved for the fire victims." I decided to take care of her myself.

"Actually, I was from the fire." The doctors looked from me to the nurse.

"Well we have no room in the girls' side anymore. Were would we put her?" One of the doctors looked at the nurse with an angry glare.

"Is there room on the boys' side?"

"Yes, but you can't honestly expect me to put a young lady on the boys side."

"Ma'am, if you that worried, put her in a room with boys who are paralyzed or something." The doctor obviously meant this as a joke, but the nurse looked thoughtful.

"Well, alright. Room 4E is available for operation." I looked at one of the doctors. Nobody had said anything about operation. I still didn't want to go to sleep. They were going to have to drug me first. They wheeled me out and into the brightly lit hospital. Instead of cartoons characters and baby colors, this hospital was white and clean. Not good, but better than Mickey Mouse. A nurse hurried up to my stretcher and gave me a shot of something before I could stop her. She then helped the doctors wheel me into the operating room. I was out before we had even entered the room.

**I'm sooooo sorry I haven't updated. I found it really hard to write this chapter, but I swear the next one will be quicker. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	27. Seeing Angela

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 27-Seeing Angela**

**Steve POV.**

I had an awful headache when I woke up, and it took me a second to remember why I was lying in a bed with every part of my body hurting. It was like being in that holding room all over again. Oh yeah. The room. The fire. I gasped and sat up, but was immediately back on my back, sent back by pain. My whole body was in pain. My ribs hurt a lot and my wrist throbbed painfully as I raised my hand to my head. What had happened during the fire? Oh yeah. I was supposed to find Soda, Pony, and Johnny. I looked around quickly, expecting a burnt scene, but instead found myself in a sterile room with machines hooked up to me. This looked like a hospital. Had I missed the whole fire? Crap. The door next to my bed suddenly echoed with voices and I quickly held my eyes closed. I didn't feel like dealing with people right now. The door opened and the voices got much closer.

"Wheel her over there." Her?

"Sir, are you sure it's ethical to put a girl in here. I mean, there's already a boy in here."

"And he's currently not conscious. It will be fine. He won't be able to get out of bed for a little bit anyway. Then we'll find her a new room."

They had brought a girl into my room. I couldn't wait to see her. They talked a bit more, about the girl's condition. She had apparently been given the wrong medication and had a heart attack. A weak girl. Even better. They eventually left, leaving me and mystery girl alone. I squinted my eyes open. It was awfully bright in the room. There was a bed right in front of the window. It held a familiar looking girl. She must have been from Tulsa or something. She had a nice figure and her face was hidden by mounds of raven black hair. Who did I know have that kind of hair? I looked back at the door. I hadn't heard a lock click into place, so I was sure I would be able to get out of here. I carefully sat up, my headache was getting worse. As soon as I stood I fell flat on the floor. My left ankle had just given out. What the hell? I tried again and ended up on the floor again. I looked around for something to help me and saw a wheelchair. Bingo. I crawled over using my arms and my good foot and dragged myself up to the chair. Now to find out where everyone else was. All I had to do was make sure no one stopped me in the hallway. I wheeled myself to the door and took one last look at the black-haired beauty before leaning and opening the door. I pushed myself through and started down the sun-lit hallway. It was quiet for day-time; it must be morning I thought. I began passing doors and slowed down to read the names outside of them. The room numbers were 400's. I continued to wheel down the long hallway. How do wheel chair kids do it? I was already getting tired and I had barely just begun. There was a nurse's station coming up, but I didn't dare stop. They would ask me why I was out of my room and I didn't have time to make something up. I continued to wheel until I hit another hallway. This one was a little narrower and gave me a slight feeling of claustrophobia. The room numbers were now in the 300's. I continued to look at names. One name stopped me in my tracks.

"Cade, Jonathan." Johnny! Great, I had found one. I wheeled up to the door and carefully pushed it open. The room was bright and almost cheerful, had it not been filled with hurt kids. There were only two beds in this room. One was holding a runt who was talking non-stop while the other held….Johnny! I wheeled in all the way. Both boys looked at me as I came in.

"Steve!" Johnny said in his quiet voice.

"Hey kid. How you doing?" Johnny looked me up and down before answering.

"Just fine. Only got a broken arm." He held up his cased arm. He wasn't finished speaking though.

"How come you're in a wheel chair? I thought you had was a sprained ankle, broken wrist and a few broken ribs. At least, that's what Soda said. Shouldn't you be in bed?" I nodded.

"Yeah, nurse doesn't know about me leaving. Hope to get back before she checks on me. You've spoken to Soda? Is he okay? How's Ponyboy?" I didn't like the youngest member of the gang that much, but it didn't mean that I didn't care if he was alright. Johnny nodded.

"Yeah, he and the rest of the gang came here yesterday. I saw Pony night before that though." His expression changed when he said Pony's name. Yesterday and the night before? How long was I out for the rest of the gang? He meant Pony, right. The rest of the gang were in Tulsa.

"What's wrong with Pony?" Johnny looked at me a little sadly.

"I don't know if I should be the one to tell you. When you start talking to him, it will be obvious." What, did he have a speech impediment or something?

"Could you tell me which room he is? Sodapop's too please." I didn't mean to ditch Johnny like this, but I had people to see and a short time to do so. Johnny nodded.

"Their both in room 511. Tell Pony and Soda I said hi." I agreed and wheeled myself out the door as the little boy began to speak again. I had been in the 400's hall, so it would be smart to go back that way. I passed my room on the way there. I really wanted to go in there and rest, my arms were killing me, but I knew I had to check to make sure everyone was alright. I finally made it to the 500's hall. This hall was a bit noisier. I guess this hall was for healthier kids. I slowly wheeled down the hall, looking into doors and viewing rooms full of energetic kids, both greaser and Soc. I passed one with a bunch of familiar faces and backtracked. I read the room number. Yep, Room 511. I saw Pony sitting on his bed, laughing at something someone was doing that I couldn't see. Soda was lying in his bed, also laughing, when he caught sight of me.

"Hey Steve. Watchya doing here?" Pony stopped laughing and looked around at me. What was with the look he was giving me? It was like he was seeing me for the first time. I wheeled in and was surprised by who was standing at the door. Darry and the rest of the gang. They must have caught a flight here after all. Two-bit was standing by the bathroom door, holding it shut, and the angry shouts and bangs within told me that Dallas was locked inside. So that was what the Pony and Soda had been laughing at. I came to a stop by Pony's bed, the closest to the door.

"Hey kid, how are you doing?" he looked a little confused and looked to Soda for help. Soda nodded, as if encouraging Pony on. What?

"Just fine, um," He looked back to Soda.

"Steve." Soda whispered. Why was Soda reminding him of my name?

"Right. Just fine Steve." Pony forced a smile. I turned to Darry, who was still standing by the door. He gave me a apologetic grin. Soda was the one who finally told me what was up.

"Pony here had a little incident during the fire, and he kinda forgot a few 'things'" A few 'things'?

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"Piece of ceiling fell on me." Pony told me. He pointed to his head and turned a bit. I saw for the first time a large white bandage on his neck and head. It looked like it hurt.

"What kind of stuff have you forgotten?" Might as well know the whole truth.

"Everything." He said it as if it was no big deal. As if people forgot things all the time.

"_Every_thing?" He shook his head.

"I still know math and stuff real well. I just can't remember the other stuff. Coca-cola and the have been helping me though." Who the frig was Coca-cola? Sodapop leaned over to Pony.

"Sodapop."

"Oh right. Sorry, keep making that mistake." Pony apologized and looked back at me.

"So what, you've got amnesia or something?" Pony nodded to me. Crap. He was worse off than me. I turned to Soda.

"How about you? You have any problems? Soda shook his head.

"Just my leg. It will be fine." He pointed to a lump under the covers. Darry finally spoke from behind me.

"What are you doing out of bed Steve. Sodapop told me you had a broken foot, ankle, and ribs." Looked like Sodapop was telling everyone. I nodded.

"I don't think the nurses know I'm out of bed. I kinda snuck out after they brought a chick into my room." Soda looked up in interest.

"You got a chick? In your room? How did that happen?" I grinned.

"Jealous much?" I was about to laugh when a irritated voice cleared from behind me. I turned and saw a nurse standing in the doorway.

"Do you belong in this room?" I shook my head.

"Just visiting ma'am." She gave me a haughty look.

"We are not allowing inter-room meet-ups sir. I suggest you get back to your own room." I had a lot of stuff I wanted to say to this nurse but Darry gave me a look behind the nurses back. I nodded and wordlessly wheeled myself to the door. I turned back around to say goodbye.

"Hey pony, hope you get your memory back. Get better soon Soda." The nurse gave me a look and I sneered before wheeling myself out the door. I looked around. The hallway was getting a bit busier than before and I was getting weird looks from nurses and doctors passing by. I ignored them and continued on my way back to my room. This trip seemed to take a lot longer; stupid nurses kept asking if I needed help. Finally I made it there and was amazed to here music coming out of it. I slowly nudged the door open and saw the girl form earlier with her back to me and was singing. Her hair reached her butt and it was beautiful. She twirled around to face me when I opened the door.

"Hi Steve!"

Crap.

**Angela POV.**

I woke up to an empty room. I chest heart, but not like before. This one was a soreness, as if I had heartburn or something. I wonder what had happened. I slowly sat up and looked around. There was an empty bed across from mine. The sheets looked rumpled, as if someone used to be in it, but no one was here. There was a chart at the end of the bed, maybe it would tell who the person was. I carefully got up and walked over there.

**Patient Name: Unknown**

**Patient Number: 295670936557**

**Injuries: Four Broken Ribs, Left Ankle Sprained, Right Wrist Broken, Several Burns**

**Extra Information: Patient has not woken up over the past two days; doctors have taken him off of medication as of this morning.**

I wonder who this poor kid was. He had a lot of broken crap and had been asleep for the past couple of days. I shrugged and went back to my own bed, picking up my chart on the way.

**Patient Name: Angelina Shepard**

**Patient Number: 837532895825**

**Injuries: Minor Burns on back and legs. Heart problems from overdose of drug Lovenox.**

**Extra Information: Patient has suffered from heart attack. Patient might have mental problems due to the cause of burns.**

Mental problem form the cause of burns. Did they mean the fire? I was just fine. I jammed the papers back into place and looked out the semi open window. It was bright outside, except for some reason it was snowing. Snow? In California? Impossible. I stuck my arm out the window and let a snowflake drop on my hand. It wasn't cold and it didn't melt in my hand. I drew my hand back with the flake still on it. It wasn't even wet. I looked at it closer. It wasn't snow at all. It was ash. I had heard about thing like that. If there was a major fire in a place, sometimes the ash would go up into the air and fall on a near-by town like snow. This must be from the fire I had been in. I looked back outside. People were walking around like there was nothing wrong. They just continued on as if it was just another spring day. I saw a little boy close to the hospital look around at the falling ash. The ash kinda made me sad. To other people it meant there had been a fire, but to me, it symbolized all the kids who died for no reason. I hoped they caught Moorland, the bastard. I left the window a little later and went to the mirror stationed next to my bed. My hair had I began to sing as I tried to untangle my hair. It had gotten so much longer over the past two months. I was almost finished with my hair and song when I sensed a presence behind me and turned to see who it was. I couldn't believe it. It was Steve.

"Hi Steve!" I said. Not my normal personality, I know, but I was finally able to check one person off my list. Steve was okay, although he was in a wheelchair. He was gaping at me, like I was an angel or something. He shut his mouth real quick and wheeled over to his bed. I watched as he crawled out of the chair and dropped into his bed. What was wrong with him? Was he that bad off? I turned away from him and looked back into the mirror, this time humming. I looked pretty good, except for a few bruises on my face, from what I didn't know. I also wasn't a fan of the perverted dress they had me in. Lucky I was wearing under garments.

"Why are you here?" Steve finally asked from behind me. "What happened to you in the fire?" I thought he wasn't going to speak to me. I decided to answer the question anyway.

"Well, after you ran away, I found a table to hide under. It burned me up a bit, but at least I didn't catch on fire. I was sent to a children's hospital but a doctor their gave me a blood thinner which made me have a heart attack. Thus, I'm here." He nodded.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I passed out from smoke inhalation." After he had ditched me. I nodded.

"Then how come your in a wheel chair?"

"Because sometime while I was knocked out, I got hurt." Oh yeah, his papers had said he had broken ribs, ankle, and wrist. That must suck. He didn't have anything say to after that so he looked out the window and frowned.

"Is it snowing?"

"Nope, ash from the fire." Silence again.

"So, where were you?"

"Seeing the rest of the gang." The rest of the gang? That they were okay right?

"Oh, how are they." I tried to keep my voice steady.

"Yeah. Johnny's got a broken arm, Soda, some injury to his leg." He stopped there and looked out the window. What about Pony? How was he?

"How is Pony?" Dammit! I was giving myself away. Steve looked kinda sad. Oh my god! Pony was dead wasn't he? I would be left with no boyfriend.

"He's okay. Got a few problems though." I looked up at Steve so quick my neck cricked.

"What kind of problems?" I actually didn't care. As long as he was okay.

"He's got amnesia, can't remember nothing." Ponyboy had Amnesia. That was good and bad news for me. Good because he wouldn't remember me cheating on him, but bad because he didn't remember me at all. I was going to have to remind him then. I snuck a look at Steve. He was back to watching the ash fall softly outside. I looked back myself. It reminded me of a calm Christmas morning. Sure, I was in the hospital, but it was so calming. Every sound seemed to be drowned out by it, even though it made no sound. Me and Steve both watched the ash for awhile before he spoke again.

"Hey Angela. What happened between you and Pony at Moorland's?" Oh yeah, he hadn't been here for the first two months of captivity.

"We dated a little." It was Steve's turn to snap his head at me.

"You dated Ponyboy, the dateless wonder?"

"I kinda tricked him into doing it." Steve frowned.

"How did you 'trick him into doing it'?"

"I don't know. I just know he didn't really expect to be my boyfriend. I screwed it up though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, cheated on him with another guy. Then got pissed when Pony ignored me." Might as well be honest with the guy.

"And now you want to get back with him?"

"How did you know that?" Had Soda told him or something?

"When I didn't tell you what was wrong with Pony it became obvious."

"Oh, well yeah. I'm trying to. He just wouldn't have any of it though."

"Well this is your chance. He don't remember anything." I know it was true, but now I was scared I would screw up again.

Yeah I guess your right." I still wasn't so sure I should take this chance. Knowing me, I would mess up Pony's love life before it even began. Well, I had a while to decide, after all, Pony wasn't going home for a while right?

**TA-DAH! I am sooo close to finishing this Story. I'm sorry for the delay in getting last chapter up, here's this one. Please tell me what you think!**


	28. Sending Home

**Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes to Miss. Hinton.**

**Chapter 28-Sending Home**

**Darry POV.**

I had been sleeping in the hospital for two weeks now. Pony's memory had improved by a little and Soda was now walking on his own. He still hadn't told me what the problem with it was. I tried to ask, but he always ignored me. Why, I didn't know. After the doctor had confirmed that Ponyboy was doing okay, he had began to pull up Pony and Soda's release forms. Johnny had already been sent home, his ticket paid for by the government, and so had Steve. For some odd reason, Angela Shepard had shown up in Pony's room four days after he got here and began to smooch on him. Soda had gotten this pissed look on his face and told Angela to go away, but Angela just told him to shut up. Pony was confused and Soda was pissed. What had gone on with Angela? Ever since then, Two-bit had been making cracks about Ponyboy's love life at every possible moment. Today was the day we would be heading back to Tulsa. The government had already bought the tickets for Soda and Pony and I had went ahead to dip into my emergency fund for return tickets for me, Two-bit, and Dally. I was spending so much; I wouldn't have any emergency fund by the time I got back. Pony and Soda had to get me to go out and buy them clothes; theirs had been badly burned in the fire. It was nothing fancy, just two pairs of pants, socks, and shirts. I even had to cough to buy shoes. The hospital also gave me Soda's and Pony's clothes from the fire, the ones they couldn't use. They were badly burned. And they smelled bad. I'm sure that was due to the fact that they had worn those clothes for two months straight. Ugh. Those had been deposited in the trash on the way out. As we were driving to the airport, Pony asked if we could go by the burn site. I didn't see why not. We were early and I kinda wanted to get a closer look myself. It took a while to find it, now there weren't any fire trucks and police cars to lead us there. Only two weeks after the fire, the site was completely abandoned. The entire piece of land the building had taken up was covered in ash. It looked like snow, mountains and mountains of snow. It made me sick to my stomach. Pony got out first, walking to the site. I followed closely behind. It appeared that the police had gotten all the burned bodies from the scene of death. Pony suddenly reached down and pulled something out of the fire. It was a jacket. The real cool leather kind. Its owner could only be a greaser, probably dead. Pony shook it off and looked at it again, confused. He then dropped it, making a cloud of ash go up, and continued to walk. I looked back and saw the rest of the gang following me at a much slower pace. Soda was looking and pointing out specific places to Two-bit, telling him things that gone on. Personally, when I looked around, I saw a memorial of kids who had died for no reason. I was extremely lucky I hadn't lost my brothers, Johnny, or Steve. I knew I had come close, but someone up there must be watching over me. I called Pony back and headed back to the car. As I started up the engine, I casted one last look to the fire remnants. I slowly pulled away as the gang around me cracked jokes, poked fun, and laughed, unaware of the wreckage behind them.

**Well, that's all Folks! But to those of you who enjoyed the works of Kidnapping-An Outsiders FanFiction, then you'll love its sequel, The Cure to Amnesia. This will be about Pony's road to recovery. Memories, love, and a general good time. Enjoy! **


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